•B6713 1836 v. 1
BX 4819
Bl"7!l70^CqUeS Bae"^e, The history of the
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2009 with funding from
Princeton Theological Seminary Library
http://www.archive.org/details/historyofvariati01boss
BOSSUET'S HISTORY
OF THE
VARIATIONS OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES.
THE HISTORY
VARIATIONS
PROTESTANT CHURCHES
JACQUES BENIGNE BOSSUET,
BISHOP OF CONDOM AND MEAUX,
PBIVY. COUNSELLOR OF LOUIS XIV., PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN, AND CHIEF ALMONER TO THE DAUPHINESS.
SECOND EDITION.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH.
Vol. I.
DUBLIN : PRINTED BY RICHARD COYNE,
BOOKSF.LT.ER, PRINTER. AND PUBLISHER, TO THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF ST. PATRICK, MAYNOOTH.
1836.
THE PREFACE.
THE DESIGN OF THIS WORK.
1. — A general idea of the Protestant Religion, and the varia- tions of it. — The discovery of them useful to true doc- trine and the 'peace of the human mind. — The Authors to whom reference is made in this History.
If Protestants knew thoroughly how their religion was formed ; with how many variations and with what incon- stancy their confessions of faith were drawn up; how they first separated themselves from us, and afterwards from one another ; by how many subtilties, evasions, and equivoca- tions they laboured to repair their divisions, and to re-unite the scattered members of their disjointed reformation ; this reformation of which they boast would afford them but little satisfaction, or rather, to speak my mind more freely, it would excite in them only feelings of contempt. It is the history of these variations, these subtilties, these equivoca- tions, and these artifices, which I design to write ; but in order to render this detail more useful to them, some prin- ciples must be laid down which they cannot contravene, and which the current of a narration would not permit me to deduce, when once engaged in it.
2. — Variations in faith a certain proof of falsehood. — Those of the Arians — Steadi?iess of the Catholic Church.
When in expositions of faith variations were seen among' Christians, they were ever considered as a mark of falsehood and inconsistency, if I may so speak, in the doctrine pro- pounded. Faith speaks with simplicity ; the Holy Ghost sheds pure light ; and the truth which he teaches has a lan- guage always uniform. Whoever is but the least conversant in the history of the Church, must know she opposed to each heresy appropriate and precise expositions which she never altered ; and if we attend to the expressions by which she condemned heretics, it will appear that they always pro-
VOL. I. B
4 PREFACE.
ceed by the shortest and most direct route to attack the error in its source. She acts thus, because all that varies, all that is overlaid with doubtful or studiously ambiguous terms, has always appeared suspicious, and not only fraudulent, but even absolutely false, because it betrays an embarrassment with which truth is unacquainted.
This was one of the grounds on which the ancient doctors condemned the Arians, who were constantly making new con- fessions of faith, without ever being able to settle themselves. Since their first confession of faith, which was made by Arius, and presented by this arch-heretic to his bishop, Alexander, they never ceased to vary. With this did St. Hilary reproach Constantius, the protector of those heretics ; and whilst this emperor called new councils to reform their creeds and frame new confessions of faith, this holy bishop addressed him in these forcible words*: " Your case is similar to that of unskilful architects, who are never pleased with their own work. You do nothing but build up and pull down; whereas the Catholic Church, the first time it assembled, raised an immortal edifice, and gave in the symbol of Nice so full a declaration of truth, that to condemn Arianism for ever, nothing more is necessary than to repeat that creed."
3. — The character of heresies is to be changeable — A cele- brated passage of Tertullian.
But they are not the Arians alone who have varied in this manner. From the origin of Christianity all heresies have had the same character, and long before the time of Arius, Tertullian had said f : " Heretics vary in their rules ; namely, in their confessions of faith ; every one of them thinks he has a right to change and model what he has received according to his own fancy, as the author of the sect com- posed it according to his own fancy. Heresy never changes its proper nature in never ceasing to innovate ; and the pro- gress of the thing is like to its origin. What is permitted to Valentine is allowed to the Valentinians ; the Marcionites have equal power with Marcion, nor have the authors of a heresy more right to innovate than their disciples. All changes in heresy, and when examined to the bottom, it is found, in course of time, entirely different in many points from what it had been at its birth."
* Lib. contra Const. N. 23. Col. 1234. f De Prseter, c. 42.
PREFACE. «1
4. — This character of heresy recognised in all ages of the
Church.
This character of heresy has been always observed by Catholics, and two holy authors of the eighth century* have written " that heresy, however old, is always in itself a novelty; but that, the better to retain the title of being new, it innovates daily, and daily changes its doctrine."
5. — The charter of immutability in Faith of the Catholic
Church.
But whilst heresies always varying, agree not with them- selves, and are continually introducing new rules, that is to say, new symbols, Tertullian says, " That in the church, the rule of faith is unalterable, and never to be reformed"*!-. It is so, because the church which professes to speak, and teach nothing but what she hath received, does not vary ; and on the contrary, heresy, which began by innovating, daily inno- vates, and changes not its nature.
6. — A principle of instability in all new doctrines. — Saint Paul. — Saint Chrysostom.
Hence, St. Chrysostom speaking of this precept of the Apostle, " Shun profane babblings which will increase into more ungodliness, J" " avoid novelties in your dis- courses, for things do not stop there ; one novelty begets another, and there is no end to error when once you have begun to err.1'
7. — Two causes of instability in heresies.
In heresies, two things cause this disorder : one drawn from the nature of the human mind, which having once tasted the bait of novelty, ceases not to seek with disordered appetite this deceitful allurement ; the other is drawn from the differ- ence that exists between the works of God and those of man. The Catholic truth proceeding from God, has its perfection at once; heresy, the feeble offspring of the human mind, can be formed only by ill fitting patches. When, contrary to the precept of the wise man, we venture to remove § -* the ancient landmarks set by our fathers," and to reform the
* Eth. et Beat. lib. 1. contra Eliss. t De Berg. vcl. N, 1.
1 Thorn. 5 in 2, ad Tim. $ Proverbs xxii. 2b.
B 2
4 PREFACE.
doctrine once received among the faithful, we launch forth, without a thorough insight into the consequences of our at- tempt. That, which at the commencement, a false light, made us hazard, is found attended with such inconsistencies, as to oblige these reformers every day to reform themselves, so that they cannot tell when their own minds be at rest, or their innovations terminated.
8. — What those variations are, which we undertake to shew in Protestant Churches.
These are the solid and steady principles by which I under- take to demonstrate to Protestants the falsehood of their doc- trine, from their continual variations, and the unstable manner in which they have explained their dogmas. I do not speak of the unsteadiness of individuals, but of the body of the church, in the books which they call symbolical ; namely, those that have been made to express the consent of the churches ; in a word, from their own confessions of faith, de- creed, signed, and published ; the doctrine of which has been given out as the doctrine containing nothing but the pure word of God, and which, notwithstanding, has been changed in so many different ways in its chief articles.
y/ 9. — The Protestant party divided into two main bodies.
But when treating of those who, in these latter ages, have called themselves Reformed, it is not my design to speak of the Socinians, nor the different societies of Anabaptists, nor of the other different sects which have sprung up in Eng- land and elsewhere, in the bosom of the new reformation ; but of those two bodies only, one of which is composed of Lutherans, namely, those who have for their rule the confes- sion of Augsburg ; the other who follow the sentiments of Zuinglius and Calvin. The former, in the institution of the Eucharist, defend the literal sense ; the latter the figurative. By this character chiefly shall I distinguish one from the other ; though many other very weighty and very important differences exist between them, as will appear by what follows.
10. — The variations of one party are a proof against the other, chiefly those of Luther and the Lutherans.
The Lutherans will tell us here, that they are very little concerned in the variations and conduct of Zuinglian and
PREFACE. O
Calvinists ; and some of those may imagine in their turn, that the inconstancy of Lutherans affects them as little : but both one and the other are mistaken, since the Lutherans can see in the Calvinists the consequences of those commotions which they excited ; and, on the contrary, the Calvinists ought to remark in the Lutherans the disorder and uncertainty of that original which they have followed. But the Calvinists, in particular, cannot deny, that they have always looked upon Luther and the Lutherans, as the authors of their reforma- tion, and not to speak of Calvin, who often mentioned Luther with respect, as the head of the reformation, we shall see, in the sequel of this history, that all the Calvinists (by this name I call the second party of Protestants), the Germans, English, Hungarians, Poles, Dutch, and all others in general, who assembled at Frankfort,* through the influence of Queen Elizabeth, all these having acknowledged " those of the Con- fession of Augsburg," namely, the Lutherans, et as the first that gave a new birth to the church," acknowledge also the Confession of Augsburg as common to the whole party, " which they did not pretend to contradict, but to ' under- stand correctly;'" and this in one article only, that of the Supper ; for this reason also naming amongst their fathers, not only Zuinglius, Bucer, and Calvin, but Luther and Melancthon, and placing Luther at the head of all the re- formers.
After that, let them say that the variations of Luther and the Lutherans affect them not ; we will tell them, on the contrary, that, according to their own principles, and their own declarations, to show the variations and inconsistencies of Luther and the Lutherans, is to point out the spirit of giddiness in the source of the reformation, and the head where it had been first conceived.
1 1 . — The collection of the Confessions of Faith, printed at
Geneva.
A long time since a collection of Confessions of Faith, has been printed at Geneva j, in which with that of the de- fenders of the figurative sense, namely, that of France and the Swiss, are also those of the defenders of the literal sense, namely, that of Augsburg and some others. What is still more remarkable is this, that though the confessions there collected be so different, and in many articles of faith con- demn one another, in the preface to this collection, they are,
* Act. Auth. Blond, p. 63. f Syntagma Conf. Fidei. Gen. 1054.
U PREFACE.
notwithstanding, proposed "as one entire body of sacred divinity, and as authentic records, which men ought to have recourse to in order to know the ancient and primitive faith." They are dedicated to the kings of England, Scotland, Den- mark, and Sweden, and those princes and republics by whom they are followed. That those kings and states should be sepa- rated from each other in communion, as well as in faith, is a matter of no consequence. Those of Geneva address them, notwithstanding, as true believers, "enlightened in these latter times by the special grace of God, with the true light of the Gospel," and then present them with all these confessions of faith, as "an eternal monument of the extraordinary piety of their ancestors."
12. — The Calvinists approve of the Lutheran Confessions of Faith, at least, as containing nothing contrary to funda- mental points.
It is because these doctrines are equally adopted by the Calvinists, either as absolutely true, or at least as having nothing in them contrary to the foundation of faith ; hence it follows, that when we shall see in this history the doctrine of the confessions of faith, not only of France and Switzer- land, and the other defenders of the figurative sense, but of Augsburg and others set forth by the Lutherans, this doc- trine must not be considered as foreign to Calvinism, but as a doctrine which the Calvinists have approved expressly as true, or left uncensured in the most authentic acts that have passed among them.
13. — The Lutheran Confessions of Faith.
I shall say less of the Lutherans, who, instead of being moved by the authority of those who defend the figurative sense, have nothing but a contempt and aversion for their sentiments. Their own inconstancy ought to confound them. When we should but read the titles of their Confessions of Faith, in this Geneva collection, and in the other books of the same kind, where they are collected together into a body, we would be astonished at their multitude. The first that appears is that of Augsburg, whence the Lu- therans derive their name. It will be seen as presented to Charles V. in 1530, and after that to have been touched and retouched several times. Melancthon who had penned it, entirely altered the sense of it in the apology
PREFACE. /
which he wrote afterwards. This apology was subscribed to by the whole party. Thus it was changed in coming forth from the hands of its very author. From that time they never ceased reforming and explaining it in different ways ; so dif- ficult these reformers found it to satisfy themselves, and so little accustomed to teach precisely what was to be believed. But as if one confession of faith alone were not sufficient on the same subject, Luther judged it necessary for him to deli- ver his sentiments after another manner; and in 1537, he drew up the articles of Smalcald, in order to have them pre- sented to the council which Paul III. had called at Mantua. These articles were signed by the whole party, and are inserted in what the Lutherans call the Book of Concord *.
This explication did not fully satisfy. It was necessary to draw up the confession called Saxonic, which was presented to the Council of Trent in 1551, and that of Wirtemberg, which in 1552 was also presented to the same council.
To these are to be added the explications of the church of Wirtemberg, the birthplace of the Reformation, and the rest of them, which shall in order take their place in this his- tory; particularly those of the Book of Concord, in the " Abridgment of Articles," and also in the same book, the "Explications Repeated." All these are so many several confessions of faith, authentically published by the party, embraced by some churches, impugned by others in points the most important ; and yet these churches would wish to appear as forming one body, because, through policy, they dissemble their dissensions on ubiquity and other matters.
14. — The Confessions of Faith of the Figurative-Sense De- fenders, and the second party of Protestants.
Nor was the other party of Protestants less fruitful in con- fessions of faith. At the same time that the Confession of Augsburg was presented to Charles V., those who dissented from it presented to him their own, published in the name of four cities of the empire, the first of which was Strasburg.
This so little pleased the defenders of the figurative sense, that every one 'would make his own : we shall see four or five after the fancy of the Swiss. But if the Zuinglian ministers had their way of thinking, others were no less singular in theirs : this diversity gave rise to the confession of France and Geneva. About the same time were published two
* Concord, pp. 298, 730, 570, 778.
/
O PREFACE.
confessions of faith in the name of the Church of England ; as many in the name of the Kirk of Scotland. Frederick III., Elector Palatine, would make his own separately and apart : this, Avith the others, took its place in the collection of Ge- neva. The Dutch would adhere to none of those already made : we have, therefore, a Dutch confession of faith approved by the Synod of Dort. But why should not the Calvinists of Poland have theirs ? Indeed, though they had subscribed the last confession of the Zuinglians, yet we still find they published another at the Synod of Czenger. Not satisfied -with this, assembled at Sendomir, with the Lutherans and Vaudois, they agree to a new way of expounding the article on the Eucharist, — yet so that none of them departed from their former sentiments.
15. — Other authentic Acts. — How these variations prove the weakness of the Protestant Religion.
To omit the confession of faith framed by the Bohemians who wished to please both parties of the new' reformation — I speak not of the treaties of concord which were made between the churches with so many variations and so many equivoca- tions, they will appear in their proper place, with the deci- sions of national synods, and the other confessions of faith made in different circumstances. Great God ! Is it possible, that upon the same matters and the same questions, so many multiplied acts, so many ecisions, and different confessions of faith are necessary? And yet I cannot boast that I know all, and I know that I cannot find all. The Catholic Church never had occasion to oppose the same heresy a second time : but the churches of the new reformation, which has produced such a number, strange to say, and yet true, are not yet con- tent ! And we shall see in this history that the Calvinists have new confessions^ which have suppressed or reformed all the others.
These variations fill us with astonishment. They will ap- pear worse when we learn the detail and the manner in which ■ these acts, so authentic, were drawn up. We are amused — I speak it without exaggeration — with the name of a con- fession of faith — and nothing has been less serious in the new reformation than that which is most serious in all religion.
PREFACE.
16. — The Protestants are ashamed of so many Confessions of Faith. — The vain pretexts by which they endeavour to excuse them.
This prodigious multitude of confessions of faith has alarmed those who made them : we shall see the weak reasons by which they endeavour to excuse them ; but I cannot avoid mentioning those which have been set forth in the preface of the collection of Geneva*, because they are general, and bear equally upon all the churches which call themselves reformed.'1
The first reason assigned to establish the necessity of mul- tiplying these confessions is, that as many articles of faith were attacked, it became necessary to oppose many confes- sions to this great number of errors. I agree to the justice of this reasoning, and at the same time, by a contrary reason, I demonstrate the absurdity of all these confessions of faith of the Protestants, since all, as it appears by reading the titles, only regard articles precisely the same ; so that we can address them with St. Athanasiusf, " Why a new council — new confessions — a new creed ? What new question has been raised ?
Another excuse alleged is, that the whole world ought (as the apostle says,) to render an account of their faith, so that the churches spread in different places, have a right to declare their belief by a public testimony ; as if all the churches in the world, however Separated they may be, cannot agree in the same testimony, when they have the same belief; as, in fact, from the origin of Christianity we have witnessed a like consent in the churches. Who will shew me that the churches of the east have had in primitive times a confession different from that of the west ? Has not the symbol of Nice served equally as a testimony against all the Arians — the definition of Chalcedon against all the Euty- chians — the eight chapters of Carthage against all the Pela- gians ? and so of the rest.
But, say the Protestants, was there one of the reformed churches which could make a law for all the rest ? No, certainly ; all these new churches, under the pretext of shaking off domination, have deprived themselves of order, and are unable to preserve the principle of unity. But, in fine, if the truth governs all, as they boast, to unite them in one confession of faith, nothing more is necessary than that
* Synt. Conf. Preef. t Athan. de Syn. et Ep. a*l Afr.
10 PREFACE.
all should enter into the sentiment of him to whom God had given the grace first to explain the truth.
In fine, we read in the preface of Geneva, that if the reformation had produced but one confession of faith, this consent might have been taken for a studied combination ; whereas, a concordance between so many churches, and confessions of faith, without agreement, is the work of the Holy Ghost. This agreement would indeed be surprising ; but, unfortunately, it is not found in these confessions of faith ; and from this history it will appear, that in a matter so serious there never was such inconstancy.
17. — The Protestants of the two parties, in vain endeavour to re-unite under one sole and uniform Confession of Faith.
This great evil was deeply felt in the reformation, and the attempt to remedy it proved fruitless. All the second party of Protestants held a general assembly to draw up a common confession of faith ; but we see by the acts, that having no principle of unity, an agreement was impossible*.
The Lutherans, who appeared more united in the confes- sion of Augsburg, were not less embarrassed with different editions, and could find therein no better remedyf.
18. — How much these varieties degenerate from the ancient simplicity of Christianity.
We shall be tired, no doubt, of witnessing these variations, and so many false subtilties of the new reformation ; so many cavils on words ; so many different agreements ; so many equivocations, and forced explanations, on which these have been founded. Is this, it will be often said, the Christian religion, which the Pagans have formerly admired as so simple, so pure, so precise in its dogmas ? Is this the Christian religion, perfect and simple ? No, certainly it is not. Ammian Marcellin was right when he said, that Constantius, by all his councils and all his symbols, had strayed from this admirable simplicity, and that he had weakened the whole vigour of the faith, by the perpetual fear which he entertained lest he should be deceived in his sentiments J.
* Liv. 12. f Ibid. 3, 8 + Ammian Marcel, lib. 21.
PREFACE. 11
19. — Why it will be very necessary in this history to speak of those whom the Protestants call the Reformers.
While it is my intention to represent in this work the con- fessions of faith, and the other public acts, where the varia- tions appeared not only of individuals, but of entire churches of the new reformation, at the same time I cannot avoid speak- ing of the chiefs of the party who have drawn up these con- fessions, or have made those changes. Thus Luther, Melanc- thon, Carolstad, Zuingle, Bucer, Ecolampadius, Calvin, and the others, will appear often in their places ; but I shall not say anything which is not taken from their own writing, or authors above suspicion, so that there wTill not be in all this narrative any fact that is not certain and useful in elucidating the variations whose history I write.
20. — Parts of this history whence they are drawn. — Why no history more certain and more authentic than this.
With regard to the public acts of Protestants, besides their confessions of faith and their catechisms, which are in the hands of the whole world, I have found some others in the col- lection of Geneva ; others in the book called the " Concord," printed by the Lutherans in 1654; others in the result of the national synod of the pretended reformers, which [ have seen in an authentic form in the king's library ; others in the Sacramentarian History, printed at Zurich in 1602, by Hospinian, a Zuinglian author, or, in fine, in other Protestant authors ; in a word, I shall say nothing which is not authentic, and incontestable. As to the rest, to speak plainly, it is Avell known of what persuasion I am ; for certainly I am a Catholic, as submissive as any other to the decisions of the church, and so disposed, that no one fears more to prefer his own private opinion to the universal judgment. After that, to pretend to be neutral or indifferent to the cause whose history I write, or to dissemble what I am, would be to offer a gross illusion to the reader ; but with this sincere avowal, I maintain that Protestants cannot deny that I am entitled to belief, and that they will never read a history more indubitable than this ; since in all that I have to say against their churches and their authors, I will mention nothing which is not clearly proved by their own witnesses.
12 PREFACE.
21. — Some objections that may be made against this work.
I have not spared pains to transcribe them. The reader will perhaps complain that I have not spared his. Others will probably condemn my dwelling upon things which may appear trivial to them ; but besides that those, who are accustomed to treat on matters of religion, well know, in a subject of such delicacy and importance, every thing, even to the least word, is essential ; we ought to consider not what things are in themselves, but what they have been, and what they are in the minds of those with whom we have to deal ; and, after all, it will be easily seen that this history is entirely of a description cpuite peculiar ; that it ought to come forth to the world with all its proofs, and armed as it were on all sides ; and in order to render it more convincing and useful, it was necessary to make it less amusing.
22. — Some things which it was necessary to trace farther back ; as the history of the Vaudois, of the Alb.igetises, of John Wickliff, and of John Huss.
Though my plan may appear to confine me to the history of Protestants, in certain places I judged it necessary to ascend to matters of a more distant date; at that period especially, when the Vaudois and Hussites were seen to re-unite them- selves with the Calvinists and Lutherans. In this place it was necessary to know the origin and sentiments of these sects, to point out their extraction, and to distinguish them- from those with whom some have wished to confound them ; to detect the Manicheism of Peter of Bucis, and the Albi- genses, and shew how the Vaudois emanated from them ; to give an account of the blasphemies of Wickliff, from whom Huss and his disciples took their birth ; in a word, to reveal the shame of all these sectaries to those who glory in such predecessors.
23. — Why the order of time is followed without distinction of the subject matter.
As to the arrangement of this work, the disputes and decisions will, without the distinction of matter, be seen to proceed in it in the same order in which they happened. By this means, it is certain that the variations of Protestants, and the state of their churches, will be more clearly marked. By thus taking in at one view the circumstances of time and place, we shall obtain a clearer view of what may serve for the conviction or defence of the parties concerned.
PREFACE. 13
24. — The whole dispute regarding the Church put together. — The present state of this famous question, and to what terms it is reduced by the ministers Claude and Jurieu.
There is but one controversy the history of which I give sepa- rately ; it is that which regards the church. This is a matter of such importance, that by its decision alone all disputes might be terminated, were it not as much obscured in the writings of Protestants, as it is clear and intelligible in itself. To restore it to its native plainness and simplicity, I have collected, in the last book, all I had to mention on this subject; that the reader, having once seen the difficulty to the bottom, may perceive what obliged these new churches to change into so many shapes in succession, — what in the end is but one and the same. For, in a word, the whole matter at issue is to shew where the church was before the reformation. Natu- rally and accordingly to the commonly-received opinions of all Christians, it ought to be acknowledged as visible ; and in their first confessions of faith, namely those of Augsburg and Strasburg, the first of each party, they went thus far. By this they obliged themselves to shew, as agreeing with them in one and the same belief, not private individuals scattered up and down, some on one point and some on ano- ther, but bodies of a church, namely, bodies composed of pastors and people. For a long time they amused men in saying, that the church indeed was not always in a state of splendour, but in all times there was, at least, some little assembly where truth made itself heard ; at last they have well perceived they could not point out any one, either little or great, obscure or illustrious, which was of the Protestant belief, the subterfuge of an invisible church very opportunely occurred to them, and the dispute long turned upon this question. In our days they have more clearly perceived, that a church reduced to an invisible state was a chimera, irreconcilable with the plan of scripture, and common notions of Christians, and this bad position is now abandoned. The Protestants have been obliged to seek for their succession in the church of Rome. Two celebrated ministers of France vied with each other which should best cover the inconsistencies of this system, to use an expression then in fashion. It is well known, that those two ministers are M. Claude and Jurieu. These men were gifted with wit and learning, subtilty and address, and every qualification necessary to make a good defence. None put on a better countenance than they, nor classed their
14 PREFACE.
adversaries, with a more haughty and disdainful air, with weak people and missionaries for whom they entertained so great contempt ; the difficulty, however, which they would make appear so light, proved at last so great, that it raised a division in the party. At length they were obliged to acknowledge publicly, that in the church of Rome, as in other churches, eternal salvation with the essential succession of true Christianity were found — a secret which the policy of the party had so long kept concealed. They have given us great advantages besides ; they were driven into such visible excesses ; they have so far forgotten both the ancient maxims of the reformation, and their own confessions of faith, that I could not but relate this change in full. Having applied myself with great care to trace out exactly the plan of these two ministers, and shew plainly the state in which they iiave placed the question, I must acknowledge sincerely, that I have found in their writings, with the most dexterous shifts, as much erudition and as much subtilty as ever I have observed in all the Lutheran or Calvinistic authors with whom I am acquainted, tf among Protestants it should be judged advisable, under the pretext of the absurdities into which they have been forced, to contradict and recall what they have granted, and again take shelter in the invi- sible church, or other retreats equally abandoned, this would be like the disorder of a defeated army, who, dismayed at their overthrow, should seek to re-enter those forts which they had been unable to maintain, at the peril of being soon forced out a second time : or like the restlessness of a sick person, who, after much turning to and fro in bed in search of a more easy place, comes back to that he had just left, where he soon finds himself as uncomfortable as before.
25. — What complaints Protestants may make, and how frivolous.
I have but one thing to fear : it is, if I may be allowed to speak it, lest I should lay too open to our brethren the weak- ness of their reformation. Some there are, who, seeing their religion so manifestly in the wrong, rather than be pacified, will be exasperated against us, though alas ! I am far from imputing to them the misfortunes of their birth, and I pity much more than I blame them. But they will not fail to rise up against us. What recriminations will be prepared against the church, and what reproaches against myself, probably, on the nature of this work ? How many of our ad-
PREFACE. 15
versaries, though without reason, will tell me, that departing from my own character and maxims, and converting dis- putes of religion into personal and particular accusations, I have abandoned that moderation, which they themselves have praised ? But certainly, they will merit the blame, — if this history renders the reformation odious, honest minds will clearly see, that it is not I, but the thing itself that speaks. In a discourse in which with regard to matters of faith, I propose to show the most authentic acts of the Protestant religion, nothing less than personal facts can be the question in hand ; and if these be found in their authors, whom they represent as men sent in an extraordinary manner to revive Christianity in the sixteenth century, a conduct directly opposed to such a design ; if through the whole party they have formed, characters quite contrary to a reviv- ing of Christianity be seen ; in this part of the history, Protestants will learn not to dishonour God and his pro- vidence, by attributing to him a special choice which would be evidently bad.
26. — What recriminations may be allowed them.
We must bear with recriminations, together with all those inventions and calumnies with which our adversaries are accustomed to load us. I require of them but two condi- tions, which they must allow to be just. The first is, not to think of accusing us of variations in matters of faith, until after they have cleared themselves ; for they cannot deny, that this course would not be an answer to this history, but would tend to bewilder and delude the reader ; secondly, not to oppose reasonings or conjectures to certain facts ; but certain facts to certain facts, and authentic decisions of faith to authentic decisions of faith.
And if by such proofs they shew us the least inconsistency, or the least variation, in the dogmas of the Catholic church, from her first origin down to us, that is from the foundation of Christianity, I will readily own to them that they are right, and I myself will suppress my whole history.
27. — This History very conducive to the knowledge of Truth.
It is not, however, my design to make a jejune and insipid recital of Protestant variations. I shall disclose their causes ; I shall shew that no change happened among them, which does not argue an inconsistency in their doctrine,
1G PREFACE.
and is not the necessary result of it. Their variations, like those of the Arians, will discover what they would have excused, what supplied, what disguised in their belief. Their disputes, their contradictions, and their equivocations, will bear witness to Catholic truth, which, from to time, must also be represented such as it is in itself, in order to make it appear by how many ways its enemies have been forced at length to draw near to it again. Thus, in the very midst of so many disputes, the dark and inevitable confusions of the new reform, Catholic truth, like a beautiful sun piercing through opaque clouds, will everywhere display its lustre ; and this treatise, should the execution equal the desire with which God has inspired me, will be the more convincing demonstration of the justice of our cause, as it will proceed from principles and facts allowed for certain by all.
28. — And to facilitate a reunion.
In short, the contests and agreements of Protestants will point out to us in what, on one side or the other, they have placed the fundamentals of religion, and the point at issue : what they must aver, what, at least, they must support in conformity with their own principles. The Confession of Augsburg alone, with its apology, will decide more in our favour than one thinks, and, I presume, what is most essen- tial, we shall convince the Calvinist, complaisant to some, inexorable to others, that what appears odious in the Catho- lic, and not so in the Lutheran, at bottom is not essentially different ; when it will appear, that what is aggravated against one, is extenuated and tolerated in the other ; this will prove sufficiently, that such conduct proceeds not from principle, but aversion, which has ever been the true spirit of schism. This trial to which the Calvinist subjects himself, will reach much further than he is aware. The Lutheran will also find disputes greatly lessened by the truths he al- ready acknowledges, and this work, which at first might seem contentious, will tend more to promote peace than strife.
29. — How Catholics ought to be affected by this History.
As to the Catholic, he will everywhere praise the Almighty, for the continual protection he affords his church, in order to maintain her simplicity, and inflexible uprightness, amidst the subtilties, with which men strive to bewilder the truths of the Gospel.
PREFACE. 17
The perverseness of heretics will be a great and instruct- ing spectacle to the humble of heart. They will learn to despise that knowledge which puffs up, and that elo- quence which dazzles ; and the talents which the world admires will appear to them of little value, when they see such vain curiosities, such caprices in learned men, such dissimulation, such artifices in the most polite writers ; so much vanity and ostentation, such dangerous illusions amongst those called men of wit ; and finally, so much arro- gance and passion, and consequently so many and so mani- fest errors in men that appear great, because they are fol- lowed by the crowd. They will deplore the errors of the human mind, and be convinced that the only remedy for these great evils, is to break off all attachment to private judgment, for it is this which distinguishes Catholic from Heretic. The property of the heretic, that is, of one who has a particular opi- nion, is, to be wedded to his own conceits : the property of the Catholic, that is, universal, is, to prefer the general sense of the whole church to his own sentiments ; this is the grace for which we shall petition in behalf of those that err. We shall, however, be filled with a salutary and holy awe, when we con- template the dangerous and slippery temptations with which God tries his Church, and the judgments which he exercises on her ; nor shall we cease to pour forth prayers to obtain for her, pastors equally enlightened and exemplary, since it is through want of them that the flock, which has been redeemed at so great a price, has been so miserably ravaged.
VOL. I.
THE HISTORY
VARIATIONS OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES.
BOOK I.
[From the year 1517 to the year 1520.]
Brief Summary : — The beginning of Luther's disputes. — His agitations. — His submissions to the Church and Pope. — The foundations of his Reformation laid in imputed justice ; his unheard of propositions; his condemnation.— His passion, furious threats, vain prophecies, and the miracles of which he boasts. — The Papacy to be overthrown all of a sudden, without violence. — He promises he will not permit men to rise in arms for the maintenance of his Gospel.
1. — A reformation of the Church, desired many ages ago.
A reformation of ecclesiastical discipline had been desired several ages since. " Who will grant me,"" says St. Ber- nard, " before I die, to see the church of God such as she had been in the primitive times* ?" If this holy man had any thing to regret at his death, it was, that he had not witnessed so happy a change. During his whole life he bewailed the evils of the church : he never ceased to admonish the people, the clergy, the bishops, and the Popes themselves of them. Nor did he conceal his sentiments on this subject from his own religious, who partook of his affliction in their solitude, and ex- tolled the Divine goodness in having drawn them to it so much the more gratefully, as the world was more universally cor- rupted-}-. Disorders had still increased since that time. The Roman church, the mother of churches, which for nine whole ages had, by setting the example of an exact observance of ec- clesiastical discipline, maintained it throughout the universe to her utmost power, was not exempt from evil ; and from the
* Bern.Epist, 257, ad Eugen. Papain, nunc 238. N. 6.
t Gnil. Durand.Episc. ftlimat. Speculator dictus, Tract, de Modo Gen. Cone, celeb, tit. 1. part. J ejusd. part. Tit. 33, &c.
BOOK I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 19
time of the council of Vienne, a great prelate, commissioned by the Pope to prepare matters there to be discussed, laid it down as a groundwork to this holy assembly, " to reform the church in the head and members." The great schism which happened soon after made this saying common, not only with particular doctors, Gerson, or Peter D'Aily, and other great men of the time, but also with the councils ; and nothing was more frequently repeated in those of Pisa and Constance. What happened in the council of Basil, where a reformation was unfortunately eluded, and the church rein- volved in new divisions, is well known. The disorders of the clergy, chiefly those of Germany, were represented in this manner to Eugenius IV. by Cardinal Julian. " These dis- orders," said he, " excite the hatred of the people against the whole ecclesiastical order, and should they not be corrected, it is to be feared lest the laity, like the Hussites, should rise against the clergy, as they loudly threaten us*." If the clergy of Germany were not quickly reformed, he predicted, that after the heresy of Bohemia, and when it would be extinct, another still more dangerous would soon succeed ; for it will be said, proceeded he, " that the clergyf are incorrigible, and will apply no remedy to their disorders. When they shall no longer have any hopes of our amendment," continued this great Cardinal, " then will they fall upon us. The minds of men are pregnant with expectation of what measures will be adopted, and are ready for the birth of something tragic. The rancour they have imbibed against us becomes manifest ; they will soon think it an agreeable sacrifice to God to abuse and rob ecclesiastics, as abandoned to extreme disorders, and hateful to God and man. The little respect now remaining for the ecclesiastical orders will soon be extinguished. Men will cast the blame of these abuses on the court of Rome, which will be considered the cause of them, because it had neglected to apply the necessary remedy." He afterwards spoke more emphatically : " I see," said hej, " the axe is at the root : the tree begins to bend, and instead of propping it whilst in our power, we accelerate its fall.1' He foresees a speedy desola- tion in the German clergy. The desire of depriving them of their temporal goods would form the first spring of motion. " Bodies and souls," said he, "will perish together. God hides from us the prospect of our dangers, as he is accustomed to do with those whom he destines for punishment : we run into the fire which we see lighted before us."
* Epist. 1. Julian Curd, ad Eug. iv. inter Op. JEn. Silv. p. GC. •f Ibidem. X Ibidem.
c '2
20 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK.
2. — This desired reformation regarded not faith, but only
discipline.
Thus, in the fifteenth century, did this Cardinal, the greatest man of his time, lament the abuses of those days, and foresee their alarming consequences. He seems to have foretold those evils in which Luther was about to involve all Christendom, beginning with Germany. Nor was he mis- taken, when he supposed that a reformation which was despised, and a hatred redoubled against the clergy, would speedily bring forth a sect more terrible to the church than that of the Bohemians. Under the banner of Luther appeared this sect, and in assuming to themselves the title of Reformed, they boasted they had realized the wishes of Christendom, because a reformation had been long desired by the Catholic world, people, doctors, and prelates. In order to justify this pretended reformation, whatever had been said by the writers of the church against the disorders of the clergy and people, was collected with great industry.
But here is a manifest deceit in the passages cited ; not one of these doctors even for once thought of changing the faith of the church, or of correcting her worship, which chiefly consisted in the sacrifice of the altar, or of subverting the authority of her prelates, and chiefly that of the Pope, which was the great end of this new reformation as founded by Luther.
3. — The testimony of St. Bernard.
Our reformers cite to us St. Bernard, who enumerating the grievances of the church, all those she sustained at the beginning during the persecutions, and those she suffered from heresies in their progress, and those she was exposed to in latter days, through the corruption of morals, allows the latter to be far more frightful*, because they corrupt the very vitals, and spread infection through all the members of the church : whence, concludes this great man, the church may truly say with Isaiah, " her bitterest and most painful bit- terness is in peacef ;" when left in peace by infidels, and unmolested by heretics, she is most dangerously assaulted by the depraved morals of her own children." Even this were sufficient to show that he did not deplore, as the reformers did, the errors into which the church had fallen, since, on the contrary, he represented it as safe on that side ; but such
* Bern. Serin. 33. in Cant. N. 10. t Isaiae xxxviii. 17.
I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC 21
evils only as proceeded from relaxed discipline : accordingly, when, instead of discipline, the dogmas of the church were attacked by turbulent and restless men, — such as Peter of Bruis, as Henry, as Arnauld of Bresse, — this great man would not suffer one of them to be weakened, but fought invincibly for the faith of the church, and the authority of the prelates*.
4. — The testimony of Gerson, and Cardinal Peter D'Aily, Bishop of Cambray.
It was so with the other Catholic doctors, who in the suc- ceeding ages lamented abuses, and demanded a reformation of them. Gerson was the most celebrated of these, and now proposed with more energy a reformation of the church in her head and members. In a sermon, which he made after the council of Pisa, before Alexander the Fifth, he introduces the church demanding of the Pope a reformation and re-esta- blishment of the kingdom of Israel ; but to show he complained of no error that could be observed in the doctrine of the church, he addresses the Pope in these words: " Why," says he, " do you not send to the Indiansf, whose faith may have been easily corrupted, as they are not united to the church of Rome, whence certainty of faith must be derived ?" His master, Cardinal Peter D'Aily, sighed also for a reformation, but he fixed its foundation on a principle entirely different from that on which Luther would establish it, since he him- self wrote to Melancthon, " that sound doctrine could not subsist, whilst the authority of the Pope existed ;" and, on the contrary, the Cardinal thought " that the members of the church being separated from their head, during the schism, and there being no administrator, and apostolic director, namely, no Pope, that all the church acknowledged no hope could be entertained of effecting a reformation |." Thus one made the reformation to consist in the subversion of the papacy, and the other in the perfect re-establishment of that sacred authority, which was instituted by Jesus Christ to preserve unity amongst his members, and retain all in their respective duties.
5. — Two ways of desiring the reformation of the Church. There were then two different sorts of persons, who called for
* Bern. Serm. G5, 6C in Cant.
f Gcrs. Serm. de Ascens. Dom. ad Alex. V, vol. ii. p. 131.
J Ibid. 137.
22 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK
the reformation ; one, the truly peaceable and true children of the church, without bitterness bewailed her grievances, and, with respect, proposed a reformation of them, and in humility bore with a delay. Far from desiring to effect this object by schism, they, on the contrary, looked on schism as the greatest of all evils. In the midst of these abuses, they admired the providence of God, who, according to his pro- mises, knew how to preserve the faith of the church. And, though they could not accomplish a reformation of morals, free from all bitterness and passion, they deemed themselves happy that nothing prevented them from accomplishing it in themselves. These were the strong ones of the church, whose faith no temptation could shake nor induce to deviate from unity. Besides these, there were proud spirits, who, struck with the disorders they saw prevailing in the church, especially in her ministers, did not believe the promises of her eternal duration could subsist in the midst of such abuses ; whereas, the Son of God had taught to respect the chair of Moses, notwithstanding the evil actions of the Scribes and Pharisees who sat therein*. These became proud, and thereby weak, yielding to the temptation which inclines to hate the chair itself, in hatred to those who sat upon it ; and, as if the wickedness of man could make void the work of God, the aversion they had conceived against the teachers, made them both hate the doctrines they taught, and the authority they had received from God to teach.
Such were the Vaudois and Albigenses ; such were John WicklifFe and John Huss. The ordinary bait by which they induced weak souls into their nets, was the hatred with which they inspired them against the pastors of the church. Influenced by this spirit of bitterness, they sighed for a rup- ture. It is not therefore surprising that, in the time of Luther, when invectives and animosities were carried to the highest pitch, the most violent schism and apostacy of course ensued, that, perhaps, till then had ever been seen in Chris- tendom.
6. — Luther's commencements and qualities.
Martin Luther, an Augustinian Friar, by profession Doctor and Professor of Divinity in the University of Wittemberg, first excited these commotions. The two parties which called themselves reformed, have equally acknowledged him
• Matth. xxiii.2. 3.
I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 23
to be the author of this new reformation. Not only his fol- lowers, the Lutherans, vied with each other in extolling him, but even Calvin, often admires his virtues, his magna- nimity, his constancy, and the incomparable industry with which he opposed the Pope. He is the trumpet, or rather he is the thunder, he is the lightning that awaked the world from their lethargy : it was not Luther that spoke, but God that thundered from his mouth*.
True it is, he had a strength of genius, a vehemence in his discourses, a lively and impetuous eloquence, which capti- vated the people and bore all before him, an extraordinary boldness when supported and applauded, with an air of authority which made his disciples tremble, insomuch that neither in little things, nor in great, dared they venture to contradict him.
Here I should relate the beginnings of the quarrel in ,r]7 1517, were they not known by all mankind. For who is ,'r, „* ignorant of the publication of the Indulgences of lriq' Leo X., and the jealousy of the Augustinian Friars against the Dominicans, who, on this occasion, were preferred to them ? Who does not know that Luther, an Augustinian Doctor, being selected to maintain the credit of his order, first attacked the abuses many made of indulgences, and the extravagances that were uttered from the pulpit on that sub- ject ? But he had too much fire to keep himself within these limits: from the abuses of the thing, he came to the thing itself. He went on step by step, and though always dimi- nishing indulgences and reducing them almost to nothing by his mode of explaining them, however, he seemed to agree with his adversaries in the essential part ; for when he began to write his propositions, one of them was couched in the fol- lowing terms : " Whoever denies the truth of the indulgences of the Pope, let him be accursedf."
7. — The ground-work of Luther's Reformation — What im- puled Justice, and Justification by Faith mean.
Meanwhile, one subject led him on to another. As that of justification and of the efficacy of the sacraments bordered nearly upon indulgences, Luther fell on these two articles ; and this dispute soon became the most important.
* Calv. II. Def. Cont. Vestph. Opusc. F. 785—7S7, ct seq. Resp. Cont.'Pigh. Ibid. l'ol. 137—141, &c. f Prop. 1517. 71. vol. i. Vitcb.
24 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK
Justification is that grace which, remitting to us our sins, at the same time renders us agreeable to God. Till then, it had been believed that what wrought this effect proceeded indeed from God, but yet necessarily existed in man ; and that to be justified, — namely, for a sinner to be made just, — it was necessary he should have this justice in him ; as to be learned and virtuous, one must have in him learning and virtue. But Luther had not followed so simple an idea. He would have it, that what justifies us and renders us agree- able to God was nothing in us ; but we were justified because God imputed to us the justice of Jesus Christ, as if it were our own, and because by faith we could indeed appropriate it to ourselves.
8. — Luther 's special Faith, and the certainty of Justification.
But the mystery of this justifying faith had something in it that was very singular. It did not consist in believing in general in a Saviour, his mysteries, and his promises ; but in believing most assuredly, each one in his heart, that all our sins are forgiven us. " We are justified," said Luther without ceasing, "from the time we with certainty believe ourselves so." The certainty which he required was not that moral certainty alone, which, grounded on reasonable motives, excludes trouble and perturbation ; but an absolute and in- fallible certainty, by which the sinner is to believe himself justified with the same faith as he believes Christ came into the world.
^Without this certainty there was no justification for the faithful ; for they were told they could neither call on God nor trust in him alone, whilst they had the least doubt, not merely of the Divine goodness in general, but of that particular goodness by which God imputes to each of us the justice of Jesus Christ ; and this is what he called special faith.
9. — According to Luther, man is assured of his Justification, without being assured of his Repentance.
Here anew difficulty arose, whether, in order to be assured of his justification, it was necessary, at the same time, that man should be satisfied with the sincerity of his repentance. This immediately occurred to every one ; and, since God promised to justify the penitent only/ if we are assured of our justification j it seems necessary that we should be certain of
1.] THK VARIATIONS, ETC. 25
the sincerity of our repentance. But Luther abhorred this last certainty ; and so far from being assured of the sincerity of repentance, " one was not even assured," said he, "by reason of the most hidden vice of vain-glory or self-love, that he did not commit many mortal sins in his very best actions*."
Luther went still much farther; for he had invented this distinction between the works of God and those of men, " that the works of men, however beautiful in appearance, might seemingly be good, yet were they grievous sins; on the other hand, the works of God, however deformed in appearance, might seemingly be bad, yet were they of an eternal meritf." Deceived by his antithesis and by this play of words, Luther imagined that he had discovered the true difference between the works of man and those of God ; not reflecting that the good works of men are also the works of God, who, by his grace, produces them in us, which, according to Luther himself, should give them an eternal merit ; but this is what he was resolved to avoid, — on the contrary concluding " That all the works of the just would be mortal sins were they not fearful of their being so ; nor could there be any avoiding presumption, or having a true hope if, in every action they performed, they did not fear damnation^."
Repentance, doubtless, is not compatible with mortal sins actually committed ; for to be truly repentant of some grievous sins, and not of all, or to be sorry for them, whilst one commits them, is impossible. If, therefore, we are never certain, that in every good work we fall not into divers grievous sins — if, on the contrary, we ought to fear our con- stantly falling into such, we can never be assured of being truly penitent ; and could we be assured of this, we need not, as Luther prescribes, fear damnation, unless we at the same time believe that God, contrary to his promise, would con- demn to hell the contrite of heart. And if, on account of his own want of disposition, of which he was not assured, a sinner should happen to call in doubt his justification, Luther told him he was not assured of his good disposition, nor did he know, for example, whether he were truly penitent, truly contrite, truly afflicted for his sins ; yet he was not the less assured of his entire justification, because it depended not on any good disposition on his part. On this account this new Doctor declared to the sinner, " Believe firmly that thou art absolved, and thou art so, whatever be thy contrition ||."
* Luther, T. i. Prop. 1518. Prop. 48.
f Prop. Heidls. 1518. Prop. 3,4, 7, 11. J Ibid.
|| Serm. de liidulg; v. i. p. 02.
26 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK
This is equivalent to saying, whether you be penitent or not, yon need not concern yourself. All consists, said he conti- nually, " in believing, without hesitation, that you are ab- solved ;" whence he concluded, whether the priest baptized or gave you absolution in earnest or in jest, is a matter of no consequence* ; because in the Sacraments there was only one thing to fear, namely, the not believing strongly enough that all your crimes were forgiven you, when you had once wrought on yourself to believe so.
10. — The inconsistency of this Doctrine.
The Catholics perceived that this doctrine laboured under a most grievous difficulty, because the believer, being obliged to hold himself assured of his justification, and not of his repentance, consequently ought to believe he might be justi- fied in the sight of God, though he were not truly penitent, which opened the way to impenitence.
- True it is, however (for nothing ought to be concealed), that Luther did not exclude from justification a sincere re- pentance, namely, the horror of sin, and the will to do good, and, in short, the conversion of the heart, and judged it as absurd, as we do, to be justified without contrition or repent- ance. Between him and Catholics, on this head, there ap- peared no difference, unless that the Catholics called these acts the dispositions of the sinner to justification, and Luther judged he styled them more justly, the necessary conditions. But this subtle distinction, at bottom, did not extricate him from the difficulty ; for these acts are essential for the remis- sion of sin, name them as you will, either condition, or dis- position, or necessary preparation: so that the question still returned, How Luther could say the sinner ought to believe most assuredly that he was absolved, be his contrition what it may, that is, be his repentance what it may ; as if the being penitent, or not, were a thing quite indifferent to the remission of sins.
11. — Whether toe may be assured of our Faith, without being assured of our Repentance.
Here, then, was the great difficulty in the new dogma, or, in modern phrase, the new system of Luther. How was it possible to have assurance of the entire remission of sin, when not assured, nay, it was impossible one should be
* Prop. 1518. Ibid. Serm. de Indulg.
I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 27
certain of true repentance, and true conversion ? But it was enough, said Luther, one was assured of faith. A new difficulty, to be assured of faith, and not of repentance ; which faith, according to Luther, always produces. " But," answers he, " the faithful can say ' I believe*,' and thereby his faith becomes sensible to him ;" as if the same person might not in like manner say, " I repent,1' and so become alike assured of his repentance. " If, lastly, it be replied that the doubt will still remain, whether he repent or not as he ought to do, I say the same of faith ; and the sum of the whole is this, — that the sinner must rest assured of his justification, without the possibility of an assurance that he hath fulfilled as he ought that necessary condition of obtaining it, which God required at his hands."
Here there was a new labyrinth. Although faith did not, in the opinion of Luther, dispose to justification (for he ever had an aversion to these dispositions), it was, however, the necessary condition, and the only means of appropriating to us Jesus Christ and his justice. If, therefore, after all the efforts that a sinner makes,in order to persuade himself fully that his sins are forgiven him through his faith, this question could arise within, Who will tell me, weak and imperfect as I am, whether or not I have that true faith which changes the heart ? This is a temptation, according to Luther. We must believe, that by faith all our sins are forgiven us, without troubling ourselves whether this faith be such as God requires ; nay, without so much as thinking of it. For this thought alone would be making the grace of justification depend on a thing which may be in us ; which the gratuitousness, as I may say, of justification, according to him, would not suffer.
12. — The Security which Luther blames.
With this certainty of the remission of sin, advanced by Luther, he however declared there was a certain state dangerous to the soul, which he called security. " Let the faithful take care," says he, *' that they come not to a security ;" and im- mediately after, " There is a detestable arrogance and secu- rity in those who flatter themselves, and are not truly afflicted for their sins, which are still deeply rooted in their mindsf." If to these two theses of Luther, we join that in which he said, as has been seen already, that, on account of self-love,
* Ass. artic. damnat v. ii. ad Prop. 14, t 5 Disp. 1538. Prop. 44. 45. 1. T.
28 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK
one could never be assured iie did not commit many mortal sins in his very best actions, insomuch that he ought always to fear damnation*, it might seem that this Doctor, at bottom, agreed with Catholics, and that this certainty, which he lays down, was not to be taken, as it has been by me, in the most rigorous sense. But in that we should be deceived; Luther literally maintains these two propositions, which appear so contrary — " Man is never assured that he grieves for his sins as he ought to do ; and he must rest assured that he has gained the forgiveness of them." Whence follow those two propositions, which seem not less opposite : certainty is to be admitted, security is to be feared. But what is, then, this certainty, if it be not security ? This was the inexplicable knot of the doctrine of Luther, which never could be unravelled.
13.' — The Answer of Luther, by the distinction of two kinds
of Sin.
For my part, all I could ever find in his works tending to unfold this mystery, is the distinction he makes between sins committed with knowledge, and those committed " without knowledge and against conscience — lapsus contra conscien- tiam.Y'' It seems, therefore, that Luther would have said, a Christian cannot be assured of his being exempt from sins of the first kind, but may be so with regard to the second ; and if in the committing these he held himself assured of the re- mission of his sins, he fell into that pernicious security con- demned by Luther ; whereas, avoiding them, he may have a full assurance that all the rest, even the most hidden, are forgiven him ; which is sufficient for that certainty which Luther would establish.
14. — The Difficulty still remains.
But still the difficulty returned ; for, according to Luther, it remained indubitable that it is never known by man whe- ther this vice of self-love, so hidden, does not infect the best of all his actions : on the contrary, in order to avoid pre- sumption, he must look upon it as unquestionable that they are mortally infected with it : " that he flatters himself;" and that when he believes himself ' ' truly grieved for his offences," it does not follow that he really is as much so as is necessary for the remission of them. If this be so, whatever he may think he feels within himself, he never knows whether sin reigns not in his heart, the more dangerously the more hidden
* Prop. 1518, 48, v. i.
-J- Lulli. Thcniat. v. i. p. 490, Conf. Aug. cap. dcbon, op. Synt. Gen. 2. part. p. 21.
I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 29
it is. We must, therefore, be brought to believe we may be reconciled to God whilst sin predominates in us, or there never will be any such thing as certainty.
15. — The Contradiction of the Doctrine of Luther.
Thus all we are told of the certainty man may have with respect to sin committed against conscience, is nothing to the purpose. Luther should have gone farther, and acknow- ledged that this sin which hides itself, this secret pride, this self-love, which lurks in so many shapes, and even assumes the form of virtue, may be, perhaps, the grand obstacle to our conversion, and the inevitable subject of that continual fear which, after St. Paul, is taught by Catholics. The same Catho- lics observed, that the answers on this subject were manifestly contradictory. Luther had advanced this proposition: "No man should answer the priest that he is contrite, that is, peni- tent*." And as the proposition seems very strange, he cites these passages to support it: "I am not conscious to myself of anything, and yet I am not on that account justifiedf." David says, " Who knoweth his sinst ?" St. Paul says, " He that commendeth himself is not approved, but he whom God commendeth §." From these texts Luther concluded that no sinner is so qualified as to answer the priest, " I am truly penitent ;" and understanding it rigorously, and for an entire certainty, he was right. According to him, therefore, man was not absolutely assured he was penitent. According to him, however, he was absolutely certain his sins were forgiven him ; he was absolutely certain, therefore, that forgiveness is independent of repentance. Catholics laboured in vain to understand these novelties : here is a prodigy, say they, in doctrine and morals, nor can the church bear this scandal |(.
16. — The Sequel of the Contradictions of Luther.
"But," said Luther, " we are assured of our faith, and faith is inseparable from contrition." To which was replied, " Allow, therefore, the faithful to answer for their contrition equally with their faith, or prohibiting one, prohibit the other." " But," proceeded he, " St. Paul has said, ' Examine your- selves whether you be in the faith ; prove yourselves.' ^| Therefore we feel faith,1' concluded Luther: "Therefore we feel it not," concluded his adversaries. If it be a matter
* Assert, art. Damtiat. ad art. 1 1. T. ii. -j- 1 Cor. iv\ 1. ;j; P>. xviii. 13.
(> 'J Cod x. \6. || Ibidem ad Prop. 12, 1 I. f 2 Cor. xiii. 5.
30 THE HISTORY OP [BOOK
of proof, if a subject of examination, it is not a thing we know from feeling, nor, as they say, from conscience. That which is called faith, continued they, may be, perhaps, no- thing more than an illusory image of it, and a weak repetition of what has been read in books, or heard from the mouths of others. In order to be certain we have that lively faith which works the true conversion of the heart, we ought to be sure that sin no longer reigns in us ; which Luther neither can nor will guarantee to us, whilst he guarantees what depends thereon, namely, the forgiveness of sins. Here is the con- tradiction, and the inevitable weakness of his doctrine.
17. — The Continuation of them.
Nor let this text of St. Paul be alleged : i{ What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man, which is in him * ?" True it is, no other creature, neither man nor angel, sees any- thing in us but what we see : but it follows not from that we ourselves do always see it ; otherwise, how could David have said what Luther objected — " Who knoweth his sins P" These sins, are they not in us ? And since it is certain we do not always know them, man will be always a mystery to himself, and his own mind an eternal and impenetrable subject of doubt. It is therefore manifest folly to seek for a certainty of the for- giveness of our sin, if we be not certain that we have entirely withdrawn our hearts from it.
18. — Luther forgot all that he had said well at the beginning of the Dispute.
At the beginning of the dispute Luther spoke much better ; for here are his first theses on Indulgences, in 1517, and at the first rise of the discussion : " None is assured of the truth of his confession, much less of the fullness of his pardonf." At that time, on account of the inseparable union of repentance and forgiveness, he acknowledged that the uncertainty of the one implied that of the other. He afterwards changed,but from good to bad ; still retaining the uncertainty of contrition, he took away the uncertainty of forgiveness, and no longer al- lowed forgiveness to be dependant on repentance. Thus Luther reformed himself; such was his progress, as his anger against the church increased, and as he sunk deeper into schism. In everything he made it his study to take the reverse of the sentiments of the church. Far from endea-
* 1 Cor, ii. 2. f Prop, 1517. Prop. 20. T. I, f. 50.
I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 31
vouring, as we do, to inspire sinners with a fear of the judg- ments of God, to excite repentance in them, Luther went to such excess as to say, " That contrition, which looked back, in the bitterness of heart, on years past, weighing* the griev- ousness of sins, their deformity, their multitude, beatitude lost, and damnation incurred, served only to make men greater hypocrites* ;" as if it were hypocrisy in the sinner to rouse himself from insensibility. But, perhaps, he meant no more than that these sentiments of fear were not sufficient, unless they are united with faith and the love of God. I acknowledge he afterwards explains himself thusf, but in contradiction to his own principles; for, on the contrary, he required (and this, as we shall hereafter see. is one of the fundamentals of his doctrine) that forgiveness of sin should precede love ; and to establish this, abused the pai*able of the two debtors in the Gospel, of whom our Saviour said, " He to whom is forgiven the greatest debt loveth rftostf." From this Luther and his disciples concluded, one did not love till after the debt, namely, the sin, was remitted to him. Such was the great indulgence preached by Luther, and opposed by him to those that were published by the Dominicans, and granted by Leo X. No occasion for exciting fear, no neces- sity for love ; to be completely justified from all kind of sins, man required no more than to believe without hesitation that they were all forgiven him, and in a moment the affair was settled.
19. — Luther s strange doctrine concerning the war against
the Turks.
Amongst the extraordinary things which he every day advanced, there was one that astonished the whole Christian world. Whilst Germany, threatened with the formidable arms of the Turk, was all in motion to oppose him, Luther established this principle — " That it was necessary, not only to will what God requires us to will, but all absolutely that God himself wills." Whence he concluded, " that to fight against the Turk, was to resist the will of God, who de- signed to visit us §."
* Serm. de Indul. f Adver. exerr. Anticrislt. Bull. t. ii. fol.93<
% Luc. vii. 42, 43. § Prop. 1517, 9S, f. 50,
32 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK
20. — Luther's outward humility, and his submission to the
Pope.
In the midst of --so many bold propositions, nothing in the exterior was more humble ihan he — a man timid and reth*ed. He said *, " By force he had been drawn into the world, and rather by chance than design, thrown into those troubles." His style had nothing uniform, was even unpolished in some places, and this on purpose. So far from promising immortality to his name and writings, he had never so much as sought it. Nay, he waited the decision of the Church respectfully, so far as to declare expressly, " should he not abide by her judgment, he consented to be treated as a heretic." In a word, all he said breathed his submission, not only to the council, but to the holy see, and the Pope himself, who, moved by the clamour which the novelty of the doctrine had excited over all the church, had taken cognizance of the cause ; and thus it was, that Luther ap- peared most respectful. " I am not so rash," said hef, " as to prefer my private opinion to that of all other men." As to the Pope, this is what he wrote to him in 1518, on Trinity Sunday : " Whether you give life or death, call me this or that way, approve or reprove as best seems fitting, I will hearken to your voice, as to that of Christ himself!." For three entire years, all his discourses were filled with similar protestations : nay more, he referred himself to the decision of the universities of Basil, Fribourg, and Louvain. Awhile after, he joined that of Paris ; nor was there a tri- bunal in the church which he would not acknowledge.
21. — The reasons on which he grounded his submissio?i.
What he uttered concerning the authority of the holy see had the appearance of sincerity ; for the reasons which he assigned for his attachment to this great see were, indeed, the most capable of affecting a Christian heart. In a book which he wrote against Sylvester Prierius, a Dominican, he begins with citing these words of Jesus Christ, " Thou art Peter," and these, " Feed my sheep." The whole world, says he, confesses, that from these texts proceeds the authority of the Pope. In the same place, after saying that the faith of the whole world ought to be regulated by that which the church of Rome professes, he thus proceeds: " I give
* Resol. de Pot. Papae. Petf. T. 1. f. 310. Praef. oper. ibid. 2.
f Coat. Prieri. t. i. f. 177. J Protest. Luth. t. i. f. 195.
I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 33
thanks to Jesus Christ, for preserving on earth this only church by a great miracle, and which alone may demonstrate that our faith is true, insomuch as never, by any one decree, hath she departed from the true faith." Even after the ardour of dispute had shaken a little these good principles, "the consent of all the faithful retained him in a reverence for the authority of the Pope." " Is it possible," said he, "for Jesus Christ not to be with this great number of Christians * ?" Thus he condemned the Bohemians, who separated from our communion, and protested it should never be his fate to fall into a like schism.
22. — His sallies of passion, for which he begs -pardon.
However, there was something haughty and violent percepti- ble in all his writings. But though he attributed his passion to the violence of his adversaries, whose excesses, in that way, were not inconsiderable, yet he asked pardon for it. f* I acknowledge " (thus he wrote to Cardinal Cajetan, legate then in Germany) " I have been transported indiscreetly, and have been wanting in due respect to the Pope. I am sorry for it. Though urged to it, I should not have an- swered the fool that wrote against me, according to his folly. Be so good," continued he, "as to represent the matter to the holy father ; I desire no more than to hear the voice of the church, and to obey it."
23. — A new protestation of submission to the Pope. — He offers Leo X. and Charles V. to be silent for the future.
After his citation to Rome, and whilst appealing from the Pope ill informed to the Pope well informed, he did not cease to say, " that the appeal, inasmuch as it regarded him, did not seem necessary to him," he always abiding submissive to the judgment of the Pope, yet excused his going to Rome on account of the expense f. And moreover, said he, this citation before the Pope was needless to a man who waited for nothing but the decree of the Pope, in order to comply with it %.
In the course of this proceeding, on Sunday, the 28th of November, he appealed from the Pope to the council ; but in his act he persisted in always Saying, " that he neither presumed to doubt the supremacy or authority of the holy see, nor yet to say anything contrary to the power
* Disput. Lips. t. i. f. 251. t Ad Card. Cajetan. J Ibid.
VOL. I. D
34 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK
of the Pope well advised and well informed." And, indeed, on the third of March, 1519, he wrote again to Leo X., that " he did not design in anywise to interfere with his autho- rity, or that of the church of Rome *." And, provided a similar injunction were laid on his adversaries, he bound himself, as he had all along done, to an eternal silence ; for he could not bear a partial judgment ; and, if we may be- lieve him, he would have remained satisfied with the Pope, had he but imposed on both parties an equal silence. So little was this reformation, so much boasted of since, deemed by him necessary to the welfare of the church. As for retractation, he would never hear it mentioned, however sufficient matter there was for it, as observed above. And yet, so far from exaggerating, I do not tell the whole. But, said he, " being once engaged, his Christian reputation would not suffer him to abscond in a corner, ', or to retreat. This was his excuse after the rupture commenced ; but, during the contest, he assigned one, the more probable as it was more submissive. " For, after all," said he, •' I see not what use would be my retractation, since it is not what I have said, but what the church will say to me, whom I shall not pretend to answer as an adversary, but to hear as a disciple f."
In the beginning of the year 1520, he spoke somewhat 1 ^9f) higner > tne contest, too, grew warmer, and the party was increased. He wrote, therefore, to the Pope, — "I abhor disputes; I will attack no man, n©r be myself attacked ; if I be, having Jesus Christ for my lord and master, they shall not go unanswered : as for recanting what I have said, let no man look for it. Your holiness, with one word, may terminate all these contests, by bringing the cause to your own tribunal, and imposing silence on both parties J." This is what he wrote to Leo X., dedicating to him, at the same time, the Book of Christian Liberty, full of new para- doxes, the dreadful effects of which we shall soon witness. The same year, after the universities of Louvain and Cologne had censured this, and the other books of Luther, he com- plained thus : " Wherein hath Leo, our holy father, offended these universities, that they should snatch out of his hands a book dedicated to his name, and laid at his feet, there to await his sentence?" In short, lie wrote to Charles V., " that he would be an humble and obedient son of the Catholic Church, even unto death ; and promised to hold his j)eace, if his enemies would but let him §.w He called
* Luth. ad Leon. X. 1519. t Ad Card. Caj. t. i. p. 216.
;|; Ad Leon. X. t. ii. f. 2-G. § Luth. ad Car. V. ib. 44.
F.j THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 35
the whole universe, and the two greatest powers thereof to witness, that these disputes might be terminated ; and to this he bound himself in the most solemn manner.
24. — He is condemned by Leo. X., and flies into horrible
excesses.
But this affair had made too great a noise to be dissembled. The sentence issued from Rome ; Leo X. published his bull of condemnation, dated June 18, 1520; and, at the same time, Luther forgot all his submissions, as if they had been empty compliments. From that time he became furious ; clouds of libels were scattered against the bull : first, ap- peared his notes and comments on it, filled with contempt ; a second pamphlet, bore this title, " Against the execrable Bull of Antichrist," which he concluded with these words, " In the same manner that they excommunicate me, I ex- communicate them again *." Thus did this new Pope pass sentence. He put out a third in u defence of the articles condemned by the bullf." Far from retracting any of his errors, or in the least moderating his excesses, he went be- yond them, and confirmed everything, even to this propo- sition, namely, Every Christian woman or child, in the ab- sence of the priest, may u absolve, in virtue of these words of Jesus Christ, — All that he shall unbind, shall be unbound ;" even to that wherein he said, that to fight against the Turk was to resist God. Instead of correcting so scandalous a proposition, he maintained it anew, and assuming the tone of a prophet, spoke thus : " If the Pope be not brought to an account, Christendom is ruined ; he that can, let him flee to the mountains ; or let this Roman homicide be slain. Jesus Christ shall destroy him by his glorious coming ; it shall be he, and no other % " Thus, borrowing the words of the prophet Isaiah, " Oh Lord," cried out this new prophet, " who believeth in thy word ?" And concluded, in delivering to men this commandment, as an oracle sent from heaven : " Forbear ye to make war against the Turk, until the name of the Pope be taken from beneath the heavens ; I have said it."
25. — His fury against the Pope and those Princes tcho supported him.
This was plainly declaring to them, that henceforward the Pope was to be held as their common enemy, against whom
* T. i. 83, 91. | Assert, art. per Bull, damnat, % Ibid, t. ii. Prop. 33.
D 2
30 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK.
all were to unite. But Luther spoke much plainer after- wards : when disappointed that these prophecies did not pro- ceed fast enough, he endeavoured to accelerate their accom- plishment by these words ; " The Pope is a wolf, possessed by an evil spirit ; from every village and every borough men must assemble against him ; neither the sentence of the judge, nor the authority of a council must be waited for ; no matter if Kings and Caesars make war in his behalf ; he that rises in arms under a thief, does it to his own cost. Kings and Caesars bear not themselves guiltless, by saying they are the defenders of the church, because they ought to know what is the Church*." In short, whoever had believed him, must have set all on fire, and i-educed to one heap of ashes, both Pope and princes that supported him ; and what is still more strange, as many propositions as we have seen were as many theses of divinity, which Luther undertook to maintain. Nor was this an orator whom the warmth of the harangue might have betrayed into indeliberate conclusions ; but a doctor, that dogmatized in cold blood, and erected all his frenzies into theses.
Although he did not, as yet, exclaim quite so high in that libel which he published against the Bull, yet the com- mencement of that intemperance might have been dis- covered in it ; and it was the same passion which made him say, on the subject of the citation on which he did not ap- pear, " I defer my appearing there, till I am followed by five thousand horse, and twenty thousand foot ; then will I make myself be believedf." All was of this character: and through his whole discourse appeared mockery and violence ; the two marks of exasperated pride.
He was reproved in the Bull, for maintaining some of the propositions of John Huss ; instead of excusing himself, as he would have done heretofore, " It is true," said he to the Pope, "all that you condemn in John Huss I approve; all that you approve I condemn. Here is the recantation you enjoin me; do you require more j ?"
The most burning fevers cause not more frantic ravings. This was called by the party the height of courage ; and Luther, in the notes he made on the Bull, told the Pope under the name of another, " We know full well that Luther will not bate you an inch, because so great a courage cannot relinquish the defence of the truth he has once undertaken §."
* Disp. 1540, Prop. 59, et seq. t. i. f. 407. t Adv. execr, Antchr. Bull. t. ii. f. 91. J Ibidem, Prop. 30. f. 109.
§ Not. in Bull. t. ii. f. 56.
I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 37
When, through hatred that the Pope had caused his works to be burned at Rome, Luther, in his turn, caused the Decretals to be burnt at Wittemberg ; the acts recording this exploit, ordered by him to be registered, said, " That he had held forth with a surprising beautifulness of diction, and a happy elegance, in his mother tongue*.1' With this charm he ravished and led away mankind. But, above all, he for- got not to mention it was not enough to have burnt those Decretals, and it had been much more to the purpose, if the like had been done to the Pope himself ; " that is to say," added he, moderating a little his expression, " to the Papal chair."
26. — How Luther came at last to reject the authority of the Church.
When I consider so much passion after so much humility, I am at a loss whence this apparent humility could proceed in a man of such temper. Was it from artifice and dissimu- lation ? Rather, was it not that pride, unacquainted with itself in its beginnings, and fearful at first, hides behind its contrary, till an occasion presents of appearing to ad- vantage ?
After the rupture was opened, Luther himself confesses li that in the beginning he was like one in despair, nor could man comprehend from what weakness God had raised him to such a courage ; nor how, from such trembling, he came to so great strengthf."
Whether God or the occasion made this change, I shall leave to the judgment of the reader, and, for my part, am content with the fact which Luther owns during this alarm : in one sense, it is very true that his humility was not feigned. What might cause one, however, to suspect artifice in his discourses, is, that occasionally he forgot himself so far as to say, "that he never would change his doctrine; and though he had referred his whole dispute to the deter- mination of the supreme bishop, it was because respect ought to be observed towards him who bore so great a charge J." But whoever shall reflect on the interior con- flicts of a man, whom pride on one side, and the remains of faith on the other, never ceased to distract interiorly, will not consider it at all impossible that such different senti- ments should appear alternately in his writings. Be that
* Exust. acta, t. ii. f . 123. + Preef. Op. t, i. f. 4D, 50, et seq.
% Pio. Lect, t. i. f. 212.
38 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK
as it may, it Is certain the authority of the Church restrained him for a long time, nor can we read without indignation, as well as pity, what he writes regarding it. " After," says he, M I had gotten the better of all the arguments which were opposed to me, one remained still which, with extreme diffi- culty and great anguish, I could scarce conquer even with the assistance of Jesus Christ; namely, that we ought to hear the church*." Grace, I may say, with reluctance abandoned this unhappy man. He prevailed at length ; and to complete his blindness, mistook Jesus Christ's abandon- ment of him, for the immediate assistance of his hand. Who would have thought, that refusing presumptuously to hear the church, contrary to the express command of Christ, should be attributed to the grace of Christ? After this fatal victory, which cost Luther so dear, he cries out like one set free from irksome bondage, " Let us break their bands asunder, and cast their yoke from us f ;" for he made use of these words in answering the Bull ; and in his last struggle to shake off church authority, not reflecting that this inauspicious canticle is what David put into the mouth of rebels, whose conspiracies were against the Lord, and against his anointed, Luther, in his blindness, applies it to himself, exulting .that, exempt from all constraint, he may henceforward speak and decide, as he wishes, in all things. His despised submissions rankle in his breast; — he keeps no temper; — his sallies, that should scandalize his disciples, encourage them ; they catch, by hearing, the contagious phrenzy; so rapid a motion reaches soon to a great distance; and numbers look on Luther as sent by God for the refor- mation of mankind.
27. — Luther's Letter to the Bishops — his pretended extra- ordinary mission.
Then he applies himself to maintain his mission as extraordi- nary and divine. In a letter he wrote to the bishops, " falsely so styled," said he, he assumed, the title of Ecclesiastes or Preacher of Wittemberg, which none had ever given him ; nor does he pretend anything else, but that he gave it him- self ; that so many bulls, and so many excommunications, so many condemnations from the pope and emperor, had stript him of all his former titles, and defaced the character of the beast in him ; yet he could not remain without a title, and
* Praef. Oper. Luth. t. i. f. 49. f Not. in Bull, t. i. f. 63. Ps. ii, 3.
I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 39
had therefore given himself this, as a token of the ministry to which God had called him, and which he had received not from man, nor by man, but by the gift of God, and by the revelation of Jesus Christ*. Here we have his vocation as immediate, and as extraordinary, as that of St. Paul. On this foundation, at the beginning, and throughout the entire body of the letter, he qualifies himself " Martin Luther, by the grace of God, Ecclesiastes of Wittembergi*;" and declares to the bishops, lest they should pretend ignorance, that this is his own title which he bestows on himself, with an egregious contempt of them and Satan ; and that he might, with as good a claim, have called himself evangelist hy the grace of God ; for Jesus Christ most certainly named him so, and considered him as Ecclesiastes.
By virtue of this celestial mission he did every thing in the church : he preached, he visited, abrogated some cere- monies, left others remaining, instituted and deposed. He that never was more than a priest, dared to make, I do not say other priests, which itself would be an attempt unheard of in the entire Church since the origin of Christianity ; but what is much more unheard of, even a bishop. It was deemed expedient by the party to invade the bishopric of Nuremburg. Luther went to this city, and by a new conse- cration ordained Nicholas Amsdorf bishop of it, whom he had already made minister and pastor of Magdeburg. He did not, therefore, make him bishop, in the sense he some- times calls by that name all pastors, but he made him bishop, with all the prerogatives annexed to this sacred name, and gave him that superior character which himself had not : but all was comprised in his extraordinary vocation ; and an evangelist, sent immediately from God like another Paul, could do all he pleased in the church.
28. — Luthefs arguments against the A?iabaptistsi who : preached without ordinary mission and miracles.
Such attempts as these, I know very well, are esteemed nothing in the new reformation. These vocations and mis- sions, so much respected in all ages, are nothing more, after all, than formalities to these new doctors, who require only what they call essentials ; but these formalities established by God, preserve what is essential. They are formalities, if they please, but in the same sense the sacraments are so — divine formalities, which are the seals of the promise, and * Ep. ad falso nominat. ordin. Episcoporum, 1. ii. f. 305. t Ibid. 14. 220.
40 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK
the instruments of grace. Vocation, mission, succession, lawful ordination,' are alike with them to be called forma- lities. By these sacred formalities God seals the promise he made to his church of preserving her for ever. " Go, teach and baptize ; and lo, 1 am with you always, even to the end of the world* :" with you, teaching and baptizing ; not with you here present only, and whom I have immediately chosen, but with you in the persons of those who shall be for ever sub- stituted in your place by my appointment. Whoever despises these formalities of legitimate and ordinary missions, may, with the same reason, despise the sacraments, and confound the whole order of the church. And without entering fur- ther into this subject, Luther, who said he was sent with an extraordinary title immediately from God as an evangelist and apostle, was not ignorant himself that that extraordinary vocation ought to be confirmed by miracles. Therefore, when Muncer, with his Anabaptists, assumed the title and function of a pastor, Luther would not suffer the question to turn on what he might call essential, or admit he should prove his doctrine from the Scriptures ; but ordered he should be asked, " Who had given him commission to teach V " Should he answer — God ; let him prove it," says Luther, " by a manifest miracle ; for when God intends to alter any thing in the ordinary form of mission, it is by such signs that he declares himselff."
Luther had been educated in good principles, and could not avoid sometimes returning to them. Witness the treatise which he wrote of the authority of magistrates, in 1534. This date is remarkable, forasmuch as four years after the Augsburg Confession, and fifteen after the rupture, it cannot be said that the Lutheran doctrine had not at that time taken its form; and yet Luther there declared again, " That he had much rather a Lutheran should leave the parish, than preach there against his pastor's consent ; that the magistrate ought not to suffer either private assemblies, or any to preach without lawful vocation ; if they had suj)pressed the Ana- baptists when they began to spread their doctrine without vocation, the many evils which desolated Germany would have been prevented ; that no man truly pious should under- take anything without vocation, which ought to be observed so religiously, that even a gospeller (for so he calls his own dis- ciples) might not preach in the parish of a papist or a heretic, without the consent of him who was pastor of it;" " which he spoke," proceeds he, " in warning to the magistrates, that * Mat. xxviii. 20. + Sleid. lib. v. Edit. 1555—69. In Ps. Jxxxii.de Magis. t. iii.
I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 41
they might shun those prattlers, who brought not good and sure testimonials of their vocation, either from God or men; without this, though they preached the pure gospel, or were angels dropt from heaven, yet they ought not to be ad- mitted." This is to say, sound doctrine is not sufficient ; but, besides this, one of two things is requisite, either miracles to testify God's extraordinary vocation, or the authority of those pastors who were already qualified to confer the ordi- nary vocation in due form.
When Luther wrote this, he was well aware it might be asked, whence he himself had received his authority ? and therefore answered, " He was a doctor and a preacher who had not intruded himself, nor ought he to cease to preach, after it had been forced upon him, neither could he dispense with himself in teaching his own church ; but for other churches, he did no more than communicate his writings to them, which was but what charity required."
29. — What were the miracles by which Luther 'pretended to authorize his mission.
But when he spoke with this assurance of his church, the question was, who had given him a charge of it ; and how that vocation, which he had received with dependance, on a sud- den became independent of the whole ecclesiastical hierarchy ? However that be, Luther, for this time, was willing his vocation should be ordinary, at other times, when he was more sensible of the impossibility of maintaining it, he styled himself, as above, God's immediate envoy, and boasted he was deprived of all these titles which had been conferred on him by the church of Rome, that he might enjoy so celestial a vocation. Then, as for miracles, he was at no loss : he would have the great success of his preaching considered miraculous ; and, at his renouncing the monastic life, he wrote to his father, who seemed a little shocked at this change, that God had withdrawn him from that state by visible miracles. " Satan," says he, " seems to have foreseen from my infancy all that one day he was to suffer from me. Is it possible, that I, of all mortals, should be the only one he attacks at this time ? Formerly, you were desirous of taking me from the monastery ; God hath taken me thence without you. I send you a book wherein you will see, by how many miracles and extraordinary instances of his power he hath absolved me from monastic vows *." These wonders
" De Vot. Monas, ad Johannem Lut. Parent, suum. t. ii. 263.
42 THE HISTORY OP [BOOK
and prodigies were not only the boldness, but also the un- looked for success of his undertaking. It was this he gave for miraculous, and his disciples were persuaded of it.
30. — Sequel of Luthefs boasted miracles.
They even accounted it supernatural that a petty monk had conceived the courage to attack the Pope, and stood in- trepid amidst so many enemies. The people took him for a hero, a man from heaven, when they heard him defy threats and dangers, and say, "though he absconded for a while, the devil knew full well" (a fine witness) " it proceeded not from fear ; — that when he appeared at Worms before the emperor, nothing was capable of terrifying him ; and though he had been assured of meeting there as many devils ready to seize him as were tiles on the house-tops, he would have dared them all with the like resolution*." These were his ordinary expressions. He had always in his mouth the devil and the pope, as enemies he was about to crush; and his disciples discovered in these words a divine ardour, a celes- tial instinct, and the enthusiasm of a heart influenced with the glory of the gospel.
When some of his party undertook, as we shall see, during his absence, and without consulting him, to destroy images at Wittemberg, — " I am quite unlike these new prophets," said he, " who think they do something marvellous and worthy of the Holy Ghost, when they pull down statues and pictures. For my part, I have not lent my hand to the overthrowing of the least single stone; I have set fire to no monastery, yet, by my mouth and my pen, almost all monasteries have been laid waste ; and the report is public that I alone, without violence, have done more injury to the Pope, than any King could have done with all the power of his kingdomf." These were the miracles of Luther. His disciples admired the force of this plunderer of monasteries, never reflecting that this formidable strength might be the same with that of the angel whom St. John calls the " destroyer J."
31. — Luther acts the Prophet : promises to destroy the Pope immediately without suffering the taking of arms.
Luther assumed the tone of a prophet against those who opposed his doctrine. After admonishing them to submit
* Ep. ad Frid. Sax. Ducem. apud Chyt. 1, x. p. 247. f Fridcr. Due. Elect. &c, t. vii. p. 507 — 509. % Apoc. ix. 11.
I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 43
to it, he threatened at last to pray against them. " My prayers," said he, "will not be Salmoneus's thunder, no empty rumbling in the air. Luther's voice is not to be stopt so, and I Avish your highness find it not to your cost *." Thus he wrote to the Prince of the House of Saxony. " My prayer," continued he, "is an impregnable bulwark, more powerful than the devil himself. Had it not been for that, long ago, Luther would not be so much as spoken of; and men will not stand astonished at so great a miracle !" When he threatened any with the divine judgments, he would not have it believed he did it upon general views. You would have said that he read it in the book of fate. Nay, he spoke with such certainty of Papacy's approaching downfal, that his followers no longer doubted of it. Upon his asser- tion, it was deemed certain that two antichrists, the Pope and the Turk, were clearly pointed out in Scripture. The Turk was just falling, and the attempts he was then making in Hungary were to be the last act of this tragedy. As for the Papacy, it was just expiring, and the most he could allow was two years reprieve : but above all, let them beware of employing arms in this work. Thus he spoke, whilst yet but weak ; and prohibited all other weapons than the word, in the cause of his gospel. The Papal reign was to expire on a sudden by the breath of Jesus Christ; — namely, by the preaching of Luther. Daniel was express on the point ; St. Paul left no doubt ; and Luther, their interpreter, would have it so. Such prophecies are still in fashion. The failure of Luther prevents not our ministers from venturing at the like event now ; they know the infatuation of the vulgar, ever destined to be charmed with some spell. These prophecies of Luther stand in his works upon record to this day, an eternal evidence against those who so lightly gave them credit +. Sleidan, his historian, relates them with a serious air. He lavishes all the elegance of his fine style, all the purity of his polished language, to represent to us a picture which Luther had dispersed throughout Germany j, the most foul, the most base, the most disgraceful that ever was. Yet, if we believe Sleidan, it was a prophetic piece ; nay, the accomplishment of many of Luther's prophecies had been seen already, and the remainder of them was still in the hands of God.
Luther was not looked on as a prophet by the people
* Ep. ad George Due. Sax. t. ii. f. 491.
t Assert, art. Damnat. t. v. f. 3. ad Prop. 3. ad Prop. 33. Ad. lib. Amb. Cathar. ib. f. 161. Cont. Reg. Aug. ib. 331, 332, et seq.
X Sleid. 1. iv. 70. xiv. 225. xvi. 261, &c.
44 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK
alone. The learned of the party would have him esteemed such. Philip Milancthon, who, from the beginning of the disputes, had entered himself on the list of his disciples, and was the most able as well as the most zealous of them all, conceived at first a firm persuasion that there was something in this man extraordinary and prophetic ; and, notwithstand- ing all the weaknesses he discovered in his master, he was a long time before he could relinquish the conviction ; and, speaking of Luther, he wrote to Erasmus, "you know we ought to prove and not to despise prophecies*."
32. — The boastings of Luther, and the contempt he enter- tained for all the Fathers.
This their new prophet, however, fell into unheard-of ex- travagances. He was always in extremes. Because the prophet made terrible invectives by God's commandment, he becomes the most profuse of abusive language, and the most violent of men. Because St. Paul, for man's good, had extolled the gifts of God in his own ministry with that con- fidence which proceeded from manifest, truth, confirmed by divine miracles from above, Luther spoke of himself in such a manner, as made all his friends blush for him. They, how- ever, grew accustomed to it, and called it magnanimity, ad- mired the holy ostentation, the holy vauntings, the holy boasts of Luther ; and Calvin himself, though prejudiced against him, styled them sof. Elated with his learning, superficial in reality, but great for the time, and too great for his salvation and the peace of the church, he set himself above all mankind, not his contemporaries only, but the most illustrious of past ages.
In the cpiestion of free will, Erasmus objected to him the consent of the Fathers and all antiquity. " You do very well," said Luther ; " boast to us of ancient Fathers, and rely on what they say, when you have seen that all of them together have neglected St. Paul ; and buried in a carnal sense, have kept themselves, as on set purpose, at a distance from this morning star, or rather from this sun.'1 And again : " What wonder that God hath left all the nations of the earth, and all the churches, to go after their own ways ?" What a consequence ! If God abandoned the gentile world to the blindness of their hearts, does it follow that churches, delivered from it with such care, must be abandoned like them. Yet this is what Luther says in his book of " Man's Will enslaved." And what deserves still more to be observed
* Mel. lib. iii. Epist. 65. * Defen. Cont. Vestpb. opusc. f. 788.
I.] THE VAEIA.TIONS, ETC. 45
here, is, that in what he there maintains, not only against all the Fathers, and all the churches, but against all mankind, and their unanimous consent, — namely, that there is no such thing as free will, he is abandoned, as will be seen, by all his disciples, and that even in the Confession of Augsburg ; which shows to what excess his rashness was carried, since he treated with such outrageous contempt all churches and Fathers, in a point where he was so manifestly in error. The praises which these holy doctors have, \vith one voice, be- stowed on chastity, rather disgust than move him. St. Jerome is not to be endured for recommending it. He pro- nounces that all the holy Fathers, together with him, would have done much better, if they had married. In other mat- ters he is not less extravagant. In a word, Fathers, Popes, councils, general and particular, in everything and every- where, are esteemed nothing by him, unless they concur in his sentiments. He disposes of them in a moment, by quoting Scripture, interpreted in his own way, as if, before his time, men had been ignorant of Scripture ; or the Fathers, who so religiously kept and studied it, sought not, but neglected, its true sense.
33. — His buffoonery and extravagances.
To such a degree of extravagance did Luther now arrive : from that excessive modesty he professed at first, he passed to this extreme. What shall I say of his buffooneries, no less scandalous than degrading, with which he stuffed his writings ? Let but one of his most partial disciples take the trouble to read that one discourse he composed against the Papacy, in the time of Paul III., certain I am he would blush for Luther. He will there find throughout the whole, I do not say so much fury and transport, but such wretched puns, such low jests, and such filthiness, and that of the lowest kind, as is not heard but from the mouths of the most despi- cable of mankind. " The Pope," says he, " is so full of devils, that he spits and blows them from his nose." Let us not finish what Luther was not ashamed to repeat thirty times. Is this the language of a reformer ? But the Pope was in question : at that name alone he fell into all his fury, and he was no longer master of himself. But may I venture to relate what follows in this foolish invective ? It must be done, though abhorrent to my feelings, that it may appear, for once, into what paroxysm of fury the chief of this new reformation fell. I will, then, force myself to transcribe these words, addressed by him to the Pope: — "My little
46 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK
Paul, my little Pope, my little ass, walk gently: 'tis freezing ; thou wilt break a leg ; thou wilt befoul thy- self; and they will cry out, O the devil! how the little ass of a Pope has befouled himself * ! " Pardon me, Ca- tholic readers, for repeating these irreverences. Pardon me, too, ye Lutherans, and reap at least the advantage of your own confusion. But after these foul ideas, it is time to see the beautiful parts. They consist in thus playing on words : ccelestissimus, scelestissimus ; sanctissimus, satanissi- inus : and it is what you find in every line. But what will you say of this fine figure ? " An ass knows that he is an ass, a stone knows that it is a stone ; but these little asses of Popes do not know that they are asses -f-." And lest the same should be returned upon him, he obviates the objection : " And," says he, " the Pope cannot take me for an ass ; for he knows very well that, through God's goodness, and by his particular grace, I am more learned in Scripture than he and all his asses put together |." To proceed; here the style begins to rise: a Were I a sovereign of the empire, [where will this fine beginning lead him ?] I would make but one bundle of both pope and cardinals, and place them altogether in the little ditch of the Tuscan sea; this bath would cure them, I pass my word for it, and give Jesus Christ for security §." Is not the sacred name of Jesus Christ brought in here much to the purpose ? Enough is said ; let us be silent, and tremble under the dreadful judg- ments of God, who, in punishment of our pride, has per- mitted that such gross intemperance of passion should have so powerfully swayed to seduction and error.
34. — Sedition and violence.
I say nothing of seditions and plunderings, the first fruits of the preachings of this new evangelist. These served but to foment his vanity. The gospel, said he, and his disciples after him, has always caused disturbances, and blood is necessary for its establishment ||. Calvin defends himself the same way. Jesus Christ, all of them cried out, came to send a sword into the midst of the world •[[. Blind ! not to perceive, or unwilling to learn, what sword was sent by Jesus Christ, and what blood was shed on his account. True it is, the wolves, in the midst of whom Christ sent his dis- ciples, were to spill the blood of his innocent sheep ; but did he say the sheep should cease to be sheep — should form sedi-
* Papapismus. f Ibid. % Adv. Papism., p. 474.
§ Ibid." || Pe Serv, Art. f.431, &c. f Matt, x, 34—47.
I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 47
tious confederacies, and, in their turn, spill the blood of the wolves ? The sword of persecutors was drawn against his faithful ; but did they draw the sword, — I do not say to assault their persecutors, — but to defend themselves against their onsets ? In a word, seditions were raised against the disciples of Jesus Christ ; but the disciples of Jesus Christ, during three hundred years of an unmerciful persecution, never so much as raised one. The gospel rendered them modest, peaceable, submissive to the lawful powers, even though these powers were hostile to the faith ; and filled them with true zeal — not that bitter zeal which opposes sourness to sourness, arms to arms, violence to vio- lence. Supposing, then, if they please, Catholics to be unjust in persecuting ; those who gave themselves out for reformers, on the model of the church apostolic, ought to have begun their reformation with an invincible patience : but, on the contrary, said Erasmus, who witnessed the birth of their beginning, " I behold them coming out from their sermons, with fierce looks and threatening countenances, like men that just came from hearing bloody invectives and sedi- tious speeches.'" Accordingly, we find "these evangelical people always ready to rise in arms, and equally as good at righting as disputing *." Perhaps the ministers may grant us, that the Jewish and the idol priests gave room for as bitter satires as those of the church of Rome, however hideous they may represent them to have been. When did it ever happen that St. Paul's new converts, on their return from hearing his sermons, fell to pillaging the houses of these sacrilegious priests, as the auditors of Luther and his disciples have been known to do so frequently at their sepa- ration, promiscuously flying to the plunder of all ecclesias- tics, without distinction of good or bad ? What do I say of idol priests ? The very idols themselves were spared, in some measure, by the Christians. When did it happen at Ephesus or Corinth, when they absconded, after St. Paul's or the apostles' preaching, that they overthrew so much as one of them ? On the contrary, the town-secretary of Ephesus bears witness to his fellow-citizens, that St. Paul and his companions " did not blaspheme against their goddess f ; " namely, that they spoke against false deities, without raising disturbances, or breaking the public peace. Yet I cannot but believe the idols of Jupiter and Venus were full as odious as the images of Jesus Christ, of his blessed mother, and his saints, which our reformers trampled under foot.
* Lib. xix. 113, 24, 31, 47. p. 2053, &c, f Acts xix. 37.
48 THE HIST0HV of [book
BOOK II.
[From the year 1520 to 1529.]
A brief Summary. — Luther's variations on Transubstantia- tion. — Carlostadius begins the Sacramentarian contest. — • The circumstances of this rupture. — The Boors revolt; the part Luther acts. — His Marriage, of which himself and his friends are ashamed. — The extremes into which he runs on Free Will, and against Henry VIII., king of England. — Zuinglius and iEcolampadius appear. — The Sacramenta- rians prefer the Catholic to the Lutheran doctrine. — The Lutherans take up arms, contrary to all their promises. — Melancthon is afflicted at it. — They unite themselves under the name of Protestants. — Fruitless projects of agreement between Luther and the Zuinglians. — Conference of Mar- purg.
1. — The Book of the Captivity of Babylon. — Luther's Senti- ments concerning the Eucharist, and his great desire of destroying the reality.
The first treatise, in which Luther fully discovered himself, was that he composed in 1520, of the captivity of Babylon. In it he loudly exclaimed against the church of Rome, which had but just condemned him ; and amongst the dogmata, whose foundations he aimed to destroy, one of the first was transubstantiation. He would most willingly have under- mined the real presence, had he been able ; and every one knows what he himself declares in his letter to those of Strasburgh, where he writes, that " it would have been a great pleasure to him, had some good means been afforded him of denying it, because nothing could have been more agreeable to the design he had in hand of prejudicing the Papacy*." But God sets hidden boundaries to the most vio- lent minds, and permits not innovators to afflict his church equally with their desires. Luther was irrecoverably struck with the force and simplicity of these words — " This is my body, this is my bloocl: this body given for you, this blood
* Ep. ail Argentin. t. vii. f. 501.
II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 49
of the New Testament, this blood shed for you, and for the remission of your sins*;" for thus ought these words of our Lord to be translated, in order to give them their full force. The church had believed without difficulty, that Jesus Christ, to consummate his sacrifice and the figures of the old law, had given us his proper flesh sacrificed for us. She judged the same of the blood shed for our sins. Accus- tomed from her infancy to mysteries incomprehensible, and to ineffable tokens of the divine love, the impenetrable mi- racles included in the literal sense had not shocked her faith; nor could Luther ever persuade himself, either that Jesus Christ would have obscured, on set purpose, the institution of his sacrament, or that simple words were susceptible of such violent figures, or could possibly have any other sense than that which naturally entered into the minds of all christians in the east and {he west; insomuch, that they never could be diverted from it, either by the sublimity of the mystery, or the subtilties of Berengarius and Wickliff.
2. — The change of Substance attacked by Luther, and his gross way of explaining it.
He was determined, however, to mix with it something of his own. All those who, to his time, had well or ill ex- plained the words of Jesus Christ, had acknowledged they wrought some sort of change in the sacred gifts. Those that would have the body there in a figure only, said that our Saviour's words wrought a change which was purely mystical, so that the consecrated bread became the sign of the body. Those that maintained the literal sense, with a real presence, by an opposite reason, admitted accordingly an effectual change. For which reason, the reality, together with the change of substance, had naturally insinuated itself into the minds of men ; and all christian churches, in spite of whatever sense could oppose, had come into a belief so just and so simple. Luther, however, would not be directed by such a rule. " I believe," says he, " with Wickliff, that the bread remains ; and with the Sophists (so he called our divines), I believe the body is there f." He explained his doctrine in several ways, which, for the most part, were very gross. One time he said the body was with the bread, as fire is with red-hot iron. At other times he added these expressions, " that the body was in the bread, and under the bread, as wine is in and under the vessel;11 — from this
* Matt. xxvi. 28. Luke xxii. 19, 20. 1 Cor. xi. 24. f Oe Capt. Bab. t. ii.
VOL. I, E
50 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK
the celebrated propositions in, sub, cum; importing- that the body is in the bread, under the bread, and with the bread. But Luther was very sensible that these words, " This is my body," required something more than placing the body in this, or with this, or under this; and to explain " This is," he thought himself obliged to say that these words — " This is pay body," imported, — this bread is substantially and pro- perly my body : a thing unheard of, and embarrassed with insuperable difficulties.
3. — Impanation asserted by some Lutherans — rejected by
others.
However, in order to surmount them, some of Luther's disciples maintained, that the bread was made the body of our Lord, and the wine his precious blood, as the Divine Word was made man: so that, in .the Eucharist, a true im- panation was made, as in the Virgin's womb a true incar- nation. This opinion, which had appeared at the time of Berengarius, was renewed by Osiander, one of the principal Lutherans ; — a thing unintelligible to man. Every person saw, that for bread to be the body of our Lord, and wine his blood, as the divine Word is man, by that kind of union which divines call personal or hy postatic, how necessary it was that, as man is the person, the body should also be the person, and the blood likewise ; which destroys the very principles of rea- soning and of language. The human body is part of the person, but not itself the person, nor the whole, nor, as they speak in schools, the suppositum. The blood is still less so; and this is in no respect the case when personal union can find admittance. Every one is not learned enough rightly to employ the term hypostatic union : but when it is once explained, every person must perceive to what it can be applied. So Osiander was left to defend alone his impa- nation and invination, and to say as much as he pleased, This bread is God; for he went to that excess*. But so strange an opinion required not refutation : it fell of itself by its own absurdity ; nor was it approved by Luther.
4. — Lulhefs variations on Transubstantiation — a new way of deciding in matters of faith.
Yet what he himself said led the direct way to it. No one could conceive how bread, remaining bread, could be at the same time the true body of our Lord, as he asserted, without
* Mel. lib. ii. Ep. 447.
IT.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 51
admitting, between both, this hypostatic union rejected by him. But he was resolute in rejecting it ; and yet united both substances, even so far as to say one was the other.
At first, however, he spoke but doubtfully of the change of substance ; and though he preferred the opinion which retains the bread, to that which changes it into the body, the matter seemed but trivial to him. " I permit," says he, '* both one and the other opinion; the scruple is the only thing I takeaway*." Such was the decision of this new pope; trans ubstantiation and consubstantiation were alike indifferent to him. In another place, having been upbraided with making the bread remain in the Eucharist, he owns as much: but, adds he, " I do not condemn the contrary opi- nion ; I only say it is not an article of faith f." But in the answer he made to Henry VIII., King of England, who refuted his Captivity, he soon advanced much further. " I had taught," says he, " it was a matter of no importance whether, in the sacrament, bread remained or not : but now I transubstantiate my opinion ; I say it is an impiety and a blasphemy to hold that the bread is transubstantiated ;" and he carries his condemnation to an anathema J. The motive which he alleges for this change is remarkable. This is what he writes in his book to the Vaudois : " True it is, I believe it an error to say the bread does not remain, although this error hath hitherto appeared to me of light importance ; but now that we are too much pressed to admit this error without the authority of Scripture, to spite the Papists, I am determined to believe that the bread and wine remain." This is what drew on Catholics the anathema of Luther. Such were his sentiments in 1523. We shall see whether he will persist hereafter in them ; but it may not be amiss to observe, even in this place, that a letter is produced by Hospinian, in which Melancthon accuses his master of allowing transubstantiation to certain churches in Italy, to whom he had written on that subject. The date of this letter is in 1534, twelve years after he had answered the King of England.
5. — Strange flights of passion in the books against Henry VIII., King of England.
Now his transports of passion against this prince were so violent, that the Lutherans themselves were ashamed of
* De Cap. Babyl. t. ii. f. G6. f Resp. ad art. extract, ibid. 172. % Contra Reg. Ang.T. II.
E 2
52 THE HISTOHY OF [BOOK.
them. There was nothing* but atrocious contumelies, and outrageously giving him the lie in every page — '• He was a fool, an idiot, the most brutal of all swine and asses*." Sometimes he addresses him in this terrible manner: " Be- ginnest thou to blush, Henry ? — no longer king, but sacri- legious wretch !" His beloved disciple, Melancthon, durst not reprove, and knew not how to excuse him. Some even of his own disciples were scandalized at the outrageous con- tempt with which he treated all that the universe had esteemed most grand, and at his capricious manner of de- ciding in controversies in faith. To define one way, and then all on a sudden, the very opposite, merely in despite of the Papists, was too visibly abusing the authority which was given him, and insulting, as we may say, the credulity of mankind. But he was complete master in his own party, and they dared not disapprove whatever he said.
6. — A Letter of Erasmus to Melancthon concerning Luther's
transports.
Erasmus, astonished at the extravagance of passion which he had endeavoured in vain to moderate by his advice, in a letter to his friend Melancthon explains the causes of it : — " What shocks me most in Luther is," says he, " that what- ever he takes in hand to maintain he carries to extremity and excess. Warned of his excesses, so far from moderating them, he runs on more headstrong ; and seems to have no other design than to proceed to still greater intemperance. By his writings (adds he) I know the man's temper as much as if I had lived with him — a fiery and impetuous spirit. You see an Achilles, whose warmth is invincible, through the whole tenour of them. You are no stranger to the artifices of the Enemy of mankind. Add to this, so great success, so declared an approbation, so universal applause of his au- dience,— against such allurements a modest mind would scarce stand uncorruptf." Although Erasmus never left the communion of the church, yet he maintained amid these dis- putes of religion a particular character, which makes Pro- testants give him credit for those facts of which he was witness. But it is on other grounds most certain, that Luther, elated with the victory which he thought he had already gained over the power of Rome, no longer kej^t him- self within bounds.
* Cont. Reg. Aug. 333. f Erasm. lib, vi. Epist. 3, a I Luther, lib. xiv. Ep. 1, &c. — Id. lib. xix, Ep. 3, at Melaoct.
II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 53
7. — Division amongst the pretended Gospellers — Carlostadius attacks Luther and the reality.
Strange ! that he and his party should have looked upon the prodigious number of their followers, as they all did, for a mark of divine favour, without reflecting that St. Paul had foretold of heretics and seducers, that " their speech spread- eth like a cancer*," that " they grow worse and worse, erring and driving into errorf." But the same St. Paul says also, that their progress is limited, " they shall proceed no farther J." The unhappy conquests of Luther were checked by the division which broke out among these new reformers. It has been long since said, that the disciples of innovators believe they have a right to innovate after the example of their masters §; the leaders of rebels meet with rebels as rash as themselves. But without more reflections, to speak the simple fact, Carlostadius, whom Luther had so much commended ||, however unworthy he may have been, and whom he called his venerable preceptor in Jesus Christ, found himself able to oppose him. Luther had attacked the change of substance in the Eucharist, — Carlostadius attacked the reality, which Luther had not dared to undertake.
Carlostadius, if we believe the Lutherans, was a brutal, ignorant person, yet artful and turbulent ; void of piety, without humanity, and rather a Jew than a Christian. This is what Melancthon, a man moderate and naturally sincere, says of him. But without citing the Lutherans in particular, his friends as well as enemies are agreed he was the most restless and impertinent of men. No more proof of his igno- rance is necessary than the exposition he gave of the Eucha- ristic institution, where he maintained that, by these words, " This is my body," Jesus Christ, without any regard to what he gave, meant no more than to show himself seated at table, as he then was with his disciples ; — so ridiculous a conceit, that one has a difficulty to believe it ever entered into the mind of man %.
8. — Origin of the contests between Luther and Carlostadius. — Luther's pride.
Before he had given this monstrous interpretation, two great contests had already happened between him and
* 2Tim.ii.17. f Ibid. iii. 13. + Ibid. iii. 9.
§ Tert. dc Pracscr, c. 42. || Ep. Dedic. Comm, in Gal, ad Carlostad,
f Zuin, Ep. ad, Matt.
54 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK
Luther. For In 1521, whilst Luther lay concealed for fear of Charles V., who had put him under the ban of the empire, Carlostadius had thrown down images, taken away the eleva- tion of the blessed sacrament, and even low masses, and set up communion under both kinds in the church of AVittem berg, where Lutheranism began. Luther did not so much disapprove of those changes, but rather judged them as done in an improper time, and in themselves unnecessary. But what provoked him the most, as he shows plainly in the letter he wrote on the subject, was, that Carlostadius had despised his authority *, and would have set himself up for a new doctor. Remarkable are the sermons he made on this occa- sion ; for, without naming Carlostadius, he reproached the authors of these enterprises, that they had acted without mission, as if his own had been more valid. " Easily," said he, " could I defend them before the Pope, but I know not how to justify them before the devil, when this evil spirit shall, at the hour of death, oppose against them these words of Scripture, ' Every plant that my father hath not planted shall be rooted up ;' and again, ' They did run, and it was not I that sent them.' What will they answer then? They shall be cast down into hell."
9. — Luther's sermon, wherein to spite Carlostadius and those who folloxoed him, he threatens to retreat and, re-establisJi the mass. — His extravagances in boasting of his povier.
Thus spoke Luther whilst he yet lay concealed. But coming forth from his Patmos (for so he called the place of his retreat), he made a quite different sermon in the church of Wittemberg. He there undertook to prove that hands ought not to be employed in the reforming of abuses, but the Word alone. " It was the word," said he, " whilst I slept quietly, and drank my beer with my dear Melancthon and Arnsdorf, that gave the Papacy such a shock as never was given by prince or emperor. Had I been inclined (he proceeds) to have done things in a tumultuary way, all Ger- many should have swam in blood ; and when at Worms, I could have put things into such a state that the emperor himself had not been safe in itf." This is what history had not informed us of. But people once prejudiced believed every thing ; and so sensible was Luther of his being master, that he had courage to tell them in full audience, " more-
* Ep.Luth.adGasp. Gustol. 1522. f Serm. quid Christiano proestandum, t. vii- f. 273.
II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 55
over, if you pretend to continue doing things by these com- mon deliberations, I will unsay, without hesitation, all that I have written or taught. I will make my recantation, and leave you. Remember, I have said it; and, after all, what hurt will the popish mass do you ?" One thinks himself in a dream when he reads these things in the writings of Luther printed at Wittemberg ; you return to the beginning of the volume to see if there be no mistake, and say in astonish- ment,— What is this new gospel ? Could such a one as this pass for a reformer ? Will men never open their eyes? Is it, therefore, so difficult a thing for man to confess his error ?
10. — Luther decides in the most important matters from sjyite. — The elevation ; two kinds.
Carlostadius, on his side, did not remain quiet, but, pro- voked at being so warmly treated, laboured to combat the real presence, as much to attack Luther as from any other motive. Luther also, though he had thoughts of laying aside the elevation of the host, yet retained it out of spite to Carlostadius, as he himself declares, "and lest," proceeds he, " it might seem we had learned something from the devil*." He spoke not more moderately of communion under both kinds, which the same Carlostadius had introduced by his private authority. Luther, at that time, held it for a thing quite indifferent. In the letter he wrote on the reformation of Carlostadius, he reproaches him " with having placed Christianity in things of no account, — communicatingunder both kinds, taking the sacrament into the hand, abolishing confession, and burning images t-" And again, in 1523, he says in the formulary of the mass, "If a council did ordain or permit both kinds, in spite of the council we would take but one, or take neither one or the other, and would curse those who should take both, in virtue of this ordinance J." Behold what was called Christian liberty in the new reforma- tion ! Such was the modesty and humility of these new Christians !
1 1 . — How the war was declared between Luther and Carlo- stadius.
Carlostadius being driven from Wittemberg, was obliged to retire to Orlemond, a town of Thuringia, subject to the
* Luth. par Confess. Hospin. part ii. f. 18S. f Epist. ad Gasp. Gustul. j Form. Miss. t. ii, 384, 3SG.
56 THE HISTORY OF [l300K
Elector of Saxony. At this time all Germany was in a flame. The boors, revolting against their lords, had taken up arms, and implored the aid of Luther. Besides their following his doctrine, it was supposed that his book of Christian liberty had not a little contributed to inspire them with rebellion, by that bold manner with which he spoke against laws and legislators*. For, though he defended himself by saying, that he meant not to speak of magistrates, or of civil laws, it was, however, true that he made no distinction between se- cular and spiritual powers ; and to pronounce in general, as he did, that a Christian was not subject to any man, was, till the interpretation came, nourishing the spirit of insubordina- tion in the people, and giving dangerous views to their leaders. Add to this, that to despise the powers supported by the majest}' of religion, is to leave others destitute of support. The Anabaptists, another shoot of the doctrine of Luther, who were formed by pushing his maxims to their greatest extent, mixed in the tumult of the boors, and began to turn their sacrilegious inspirations to manifest rebel- lion. Carlostadius was infected with these novelties, at least Luther accuses him of it ; and true it is, he held a great intimacy with the Anabaptists, murmuring continually with them, as well against the Elector as against Luther, whom lie called a flatterer of the Pope, chiefly on account of what little he had preserved of the mass and real presencef ; for the contest was, who should most condemn the church of Rome, and depart furthest from the doctrine. These dis- putes having raised great commotions at Orlemond, Luther was sent there by the prince to appease the tumult. In his way he preached at Jena, in the presence of Carlostadius, whom he failed not to charge with sedition. From this began the rupture. The memorable account of which I shall re- late exactly as it is found in the works of Luther, as it is acknowledged by the Lutherans, and as Protestant historians have delivered it|. The sermon of Luther being over, Carlostadius went and visited him at the Black Bear, where he lodged, a place famous in this history for giving birth to the Sacramentarian war between the new-reformed. There, amongst other discourses, Carlostadius having excused him- self in the best manner he was able as to sedition, he declares to Luther he could not bear his opinion of the real presence. Luther, with a disdainful air, defies him to write against him, promising him, at the same time, a florin of gold if
* De Libert. Christ, t. ii. f. 10, 11. t Sleidan, lib. v. xvii.
I Lutli. T. II. Jen. 447, Calixt. Judic. N. 49. Hosp. 2. Part, ad an. 1524. f, 32.
II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 57
he would undertake it. The money is produced. Carlosta- dius puts it into his pocket. They shake hands mutually, promising each other fair play. Luther drinks to the health of Carlostadius, and to the success of the fine work he was about to publish. Carlostadius pledges him in a bumper ; and thus was the war declared, German-like, the twenty-second of Au- gust, 1524. The parting of the champions was as remarkable. " May I see thee broken on a wheel !" says one ; " Mayest thou break thy neck before thou leavest town !" says the other*. The entry of Luther had not been less extraordinary : for upon his arrival at Orlemond, Carlostadius had ordered it so, " that he was received with great vollies of stones, and almost smothered with dirt." Such is the new gospel ! Such the acts of the new apostles !
12. — The wars of the Anabaptists, and that of the revolted peasants. — The share that Luther had in these revolts.
Soon after occurred more bloody battles, but, perhaps, not more dangerous. The revolted peasants had met together to the number of forty thousand. The Anabaptists rose in arms with unheard of fury. Luther, called upon by the peasants to pronounce upon the claims they had against their lords, acted a very strange part. On one hand, he wrote to the peasants, that God had forbid sedition. On the other hand, he wrote to the lords, that they exercised such a tyranny " as the people could not, would not, ought not to endure-f'." By these last words, he rendered back to sedition those arms which he seemed to have taken from it. A third letter, written in common to both sides, laid the fault on both, and denounced the dreadful judgments of God against, them, should they not dispose matters amicably. Here his weak- ness was blamed. Soon after, occasion was given of re- proaching him with intolerable cruelty. He published a fourth letter, exciting the princes, powerfully armed, " to exterminate, without pity? those miserable wretches who had not followed his advice, and to spare those only who should voluntarily lay down their arms :" as if a seduced and van- quished populace were not a fit object of compassion, but ought to be treated with as much rigour as the heads that misled them. But Luther would have it so ; and when he saw so cruel a sentiment was condemned, incapable of oAvning himself ever in the wrong, he made a book expressly to prove that truly '* no mercy at all ought to be showed rebels, nor were even those to be forgiven, whom the multitude had drawn by force
* Epist.Luth. ad Argent, t. vii. f. 502. f Skid. lib. v. Ibid. 75.
58 THE HISTORY OP [BOOK
into any seditious action*." Then were seen those famous battles which cost Germany so much blood. Such was its state when the Sacramentarian dispute added new fuel to the flames.
13. — The Marriage of Luther, which had been preceded by that of Carlostadius .
Carlostadius, who began it, had already introduced a novelty singularly scandalous ; for he was the first priest of any re- putation that took a wife ; and this example was attended with surprising effects in the sacerdotal order, and in the monasteries. Carlostadius was not as yet at variance with Luther. The marriage of this old priest was laughed at, even among the party ; but Luther, who earnestly desired to do the same, uttered not a word. He was fallen in love with a nun of quality, and singular beauty, whom he had taken out of her convent. It was a maxim of the new reformation, that vows were a Jewish practice, and none of them less obligatory than that of chastity. The Elector Frederick suffered Luther to speak after this manner, but could not bear that he should reduce these opinions to practice. He had nothing but contempt for those priests and religious who married, contrary to the canons, and that discipline which had been revered so many ages. Therefore, not to lose his credit with that prince, Luther was obliged to have patience during the prince's life ; but he was no sooner dead than Luther married his nun. This marriage happened in 1525, that is, in the height of the civil wars of Germany; at which time the Sacramentarian disputes were inflamed to the utmost violence. Luther was then forty-five years old ; and this man, who, under the shelter of religious discipline, had passed his whole youth blameless in continency, in so advanced an age, and whilst he was hailed throughout the universe as the restorer of the Gospel, blushed not to abandon so perfect a state of life, and look behind him. Sleidan passes lightly over this fact. " Luther," says he, " married a nun, and thereby gave room for fresh accusations from his adversaries, who called him madman, and slave of Satanf ;" but he does not disclose the whole secret : nor were they only Luther's adversaries who blamed his marriage ; he himself was ashamed of it ; his disciples, the most devoted to him, were surprised at it. ; and all this we learn from a curious letter of Melancthon to his intimate friend, the learned Camerarius.
* Skid. lib. x. p. 77. f Sleid. lib. v. p. 77.
II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 59
14. — A remarkable Letter of Melancthon to Camerarius on Luther's marriage.
It is written all in Greek, for so they corresponded on secret matters. He informs him, that " Luther, when least expected, had taken Boren to wife (this was the nun's name), without the least intimation of it to his friends : but that, one evening, having invited Pomeranus the minister to supper, together with a painter and a lawyer, he had the usual ceremonies performed; that it was astonishing to see that at so miserable a time, when good men had so much to suffer, he could not command himself so as to compassionate, at least, their mis- fortunes; but on the contrary, seemed so regardless of the miseries that threatened them, as to suffer his reputation to be weakened, even at a time when Germany stood most in need of his prudence and authority." Then he relates to his friend the causes of this marriage : "that he very well knows Luther was no enemy to human nature, and that natural ne- cessity, he really believes, was what engaged him in this marriage ; therefore, he ought not to wonder that Luther's magnanimity should thus be mollified ; that this manner of life is low and common, but holy : and after all, the scripture allows marriage as honourable ; in the main, there is no crime in it ; and if more than this be laid to Luther's charge, it is a manifest calumny." This he says on account of a rumour which had spread of the nun's being with child, and ready to lie in when Luther married her, which proved false. Me- lancthon was therefore in the right to justify his master on this head. He adds, " that all that can be blamed in this action of his, is the unseasonable time in which he did so unex- pected a thing, and the pleasure he thereby gave his enemies, who only seek to accuse him. In conclusion, he beholds him full of trouble and vexation for this change, and does what he can to comfort him."
It is plain enough how much Luther was ashamed of and concerned at his marriage, and how greatly Melancthon was struck, notwithstanding all the respect he had for him. What he adds in the conclusion, intimates, likewise, how much he believed Camerarius would be affected, since he says he was desirous of preventing him, " lest through his zeal for the continuation of Luther's glory, always untarnished and reproachless, he should give himself over to too much trouble and dejection at this surprising news."
They had at .first regarded Luther as a man superior to all
60 THJi HISTORY OF [BOOK
ordinary weaknesses. That which he evinced by this scandalous marriage dejected them. But Melancthon com- forts his friend and himself as well as he is able, by reason that " there may, perhaps, be something in it that is hidden and divine ; that he has certain marks of Luther's piety ; and some humiliations befalling them may turn to good, there being so much danger in elevated stations, not only for the ministers of holy things, but for all mankind in general; and after all, the greatest saints of antiquity had their failings ; and, lastly, that we ought to embrace the word of God for its own sake, not for the merits of those who preach it, there being nothing more unjust than to blame the doctrine for the faults into which its teachers fall."
Doubtless, the maxim is good ; but they ought not to have laid much stress on personal defects — not built so much on Luther, whom, however presumptuous, they experienced to be so weak ; nor, lastly, have boasted to us so much of their reformation, as the marvellous work of God's hand, seeing the chief instrument of this wondrous work was a man, not only so vulgar, but swayed by such violent passions.
15. — A notable diminution of Luther's authority.
It may easily be judged from the conjuncture of affairs, that the unseasonableness of time at which Melancthon is so much disturbed, and that unfortunate diminution of Luther's glory, which he is troubled should happen then when most required, regarded, it is true, those horrible disasters, by which Luther foreboded the ruin of Germany ; but more especially bore a relation to the Sacramentarian dispute, which Melancthon well knew would weaken the authority of his master. And, indeed, Luther was not believed innocent of the disturbances of Germany, as they originated with those who followed his gospel, and appeared animated by his writings ; besides, we have seen that, at the commencement, he had as much encou- raged as restrained these rebel peasants. The Sacramentarian contest also was esteemed the effect of his doctrine. Catholics reproached him that, by exciting so great a contempt for church authority, and shaking this foundation, he brought every thing into question. " See," said they, " what it is to place the authority of deciding in the hands of every private person ; to have given the scripture for so plain and easy, that, to understand it, no more is necessary than to read it, without consulting church or antiquity." All these things grievously troubled Melancthon ; he, that was naturally a
II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC, 61
man of discernment, saw a division rising; in the midst of the reformation, which not only rendered it odious, but enkindled in it an endless war.
16. — A dispute on Free Will between Erasmus and Luther. — Melancthon bewails the transports of Luther.
Other things happened at the same time, which gave him great anxiety. The dispute about free will had grown warm between Erasmus and Luther. Erasmus was held in great esteem throughout all Europe, though he had many enemies on all sides. At the beginning of these troubles, Luther used all his efforts to gain him, and wrote to him in such respectful terms as approximated even to meanness*. At first Erasmus favoured him, yet not to such an extent as to leave the church. When he saw the schism manifestly declared, he abandoned him entirely, and wrote against him with great temper. But Luther, instead of imitating him, published so acrimonious a reply, as induced Melancthon to say, " I wish to God Luther had been silent. I had hopes that old age would have rendered him more mild ; and I see that, pushed on by his adversaries, and the disputes into which he is obliged to enterf, he daily grows more violent." As if a a man, who called himself the reformer of the world ought so soon to forget his character as not to remain master of himself, whatever might be the provocation! "That tor- ments me strangely (said Melancthon) ; and if God lend not his helping hand, these disputes will be attended with an unfortunate event j." Erasmus, finding himself treated so rudely by one to whom he had been so mild, said, pleasantly enough, " I thought marriage would have tamed him ;" and deplored his fate in seeing himself, notwithstanding his meek temper, " condemned, old as he was, to fight against a savage beast, a furious wild boar."
17. — The blasphemies and audaciousness of Luther in his treatise on Man's Will enslaved.
The outrageous language of Luther did not constitute his greatest excess in those books he wrote against Erasmus. The doctrine itself was horrible ; for he not only concluded that free will was totally extinguished in mankind since their fall — a common error in the new reformation — "but, moreover, that it is impossible any other should be free but God ; that his presence and divine providence are the cause of all things
* Ep. Lutli. ad Erasm. inter Eiasm. Ep. Lib. vi. 3. f Ep. Mel. lib. iv. Ep. 88. + Lib. xviii. Ep. 11, 22.
62 THE HISTORY OP [BOOK
falling out by the unchangeable, eternal, and inevitable will of God, who thunder-strikes and breaks to pieces all free will : that the name of free will is a name which appertains to God alone, incompatible either with man, with angel, or any other creature*."
"From these principles he was obliged to make God the author of crimes ; nor did he conceal the thing, saying in express terms, that " freewill is a vain title; that God works the evil in us, as well as the good ; that the great perfection of faith consists in believing God to be just, although, neces- sarily, by his will, he renders us worthy of damnation, so as to seem to take pleasure in the torments of the wretchedf." And again: "God pleases you when he crowns the unworthy; he ought not to displease you when he condemns the inno- cent.! ;" he adds for conclusion, " that he said these things not by way of examination, but by way of deciding ; that he meant not to subject them to the decision of any person ; but advises the whole world to submit to them."
It is not surprising that such excesses troubled the modest mind of Melancthon ; not that he himself, at the commence- ment, had not approved these prodigies of doctrine, having himself said with Luther, "that God's foreknowledge ren- ders free will absolutely impossible ; and that God was not less the cause of the treason of Judas, than of the conversion of St. Paul." But besides that he had been drawn into these opinions, rather by the authority of Luther, than his own choice, nothing was more opposed to his character than such opinions, established in so violent a manner, and he knew not where he was, when he witnessed the transports of his master.
18. — New transports against the King of England. — Luther boasts of his own meekness.
He saw them redoubled at the same time against the king of England. Luther, who had conceived a somewhat good opi- nion of this prince, because of his mistress Anne Boleyn, who was favourable enough to Lutheranism, had so far relented as to make excuses to him for his violence at first §. The king's answer was not such as he expected. Henry VIII. reproached him with the levity of his temper, the errors of his doctrine, his scandalous and shameful marriage. Then Luther, who never humbled himself except to induce others to crouch to him, and never failed to attack those who did not do so immediately,
* De Serv. arb. t. ii, 426, 429, 431, 435. f Ibid. f. 444.
X Ibid. f. 465. § Epist. ad Reg. Aug. t. ii. 92.
II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC, 63
answered the king, "That he was sorry for having treated him so mildly; that he did it at the request of his friends, in hopes such sweetness might be serviceable to this prince ; with the same view he had formerly written to the Legate Cajetan, to George Duke of Saxony, and to Erasmus, but he found it succeeded badly ; for which reason he should not be guilty of the like fault for the future*."
Amidst all these excesses, he even boasted of his extreme meekness. '* For, relying on the ever firm support of his learning, he yielded not in pride either to emperor, or king, or prince, or Satan, or the whole universe ; but if the king would lay aside his majesty, to treat more freely with him, he should find that he would conduct himself humbly and meekly to the most inferior persons ; a true sheep in simpli- city, that could believe no evil of any onet."
19. — Zuinglius and CEcolampadius undertake the defence of Carlostadius. — Who Zuinglius was : his doctrine on the salvation of heathens.
What could Melancthon think, in his own temper the most peaceable of men, when he saw the outrageous pen of Luther raise up so many enemies abroad, whilst the Sacramentarian contest created him so many formidable ones at home 1
And indeed, at this time, the best pens of the party were directed against him. Carlostadius had found such defenders as placed him above the reach of contempt. Eagerly at- tacked by Luther, and driven from Saxony, he had retired to Switzerland, where Zuinglius and CEcolampadius took up his defence. Zuinglius, minister of Zurich, had begun to disturb the church, on account of indulgences, as well as Luther, but some years after him. He was a daring man, whose fire surpassed his learning ; — in language, clear and intelli- gible ; nor excelled by any of the pretended reformers, in a precise, uniform, and coherent way of expressing his thoughts; nor, indeed, did any carry them to a greater length, or with more presumption.
As the character of his genius will be better known by his own sentiments than my words, I shall produce a part of the most finished piece of his whole works: it is the i( Confession of Faith," which, a little before his death, he sent to Francis I. There, explaining the article of life everlasting, he savs to this prince, " that he must hope to see the assembly of all men that ever have been holy, valiant, faithful, and virtuous,
* Ad maled.Reg. Angliee, Resp. t. ii. 493, Sleid. lib. vi. p. 80. f Ibid. 494, 495.
64 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK
from the beginning of the world. There you will see," he proceeds, " both Adams — the redeemed and the Redeemer. You will there see an Abel, an Enoch, a Noah, an Abraham, an Isaac, a Jacob, a Juda, a Moses, a Joshua, a Gideon, a Samuel, a Phineas, an Eliah, an Elisha, an Isaiah, with the Virgin Mother of God, whom he announced; a David, an Hezekiah, a Josiah, a John Baptist, a St. Peter, a St. Paul. You will there see Hercules, Theseus, Socrates, Aristides, Antigonus, Numa, Camillus, the Catos and Scipios. There you will see your predecessors and all your ancestors who have departed this world in the faith. In a word, not one good man, one holy spirit, one faithful soul, whom you will not there behold with God. What more beautiful, what more glorious, more agreeable, can be imagined, than such a sight* ?" What man had ever dreamt of thus placing Jesus Christ con- fusedly with the saints ? And in the train of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and our Saviour himself, even Numa, the father of Roman idolatry, even Cato, who killed himself like a maniac, and not only so many worshippers of false divini- ties, but even the gods, the heroes whom they worshipped ? I cannot conceive why he did not rank amongst them Apollo, or Bacchus, and Jupiter himself ; and if such crimes pre- vented him as poets lay to their charge, were those of Hercules less infamous ? This is what heaven is composed of, according to this head of the second party of the Reformation : this is what he wrote in a confession of faith, dedicated by him to the greatest King in Christendom; and what Bullinger, his successor, has given us as " the masterpiece and last song of this melodious swan." f And is it not astonishing that such as these could pass for men sent in an extraordinary manner by God for the reformation of his church.
20. — The frivolous Answer of those of Zurich in defence of
Zuinglius.
Luther did not spare him on [this head, but declared openly " that he despaired of his salvation ; because, not satisfied with continuing to impugn the sacrament, he had become a heathen by placing impious heathens, even Scipio the Epicurean, even Numa, the devil's instrument in founding idolatry among the Romans, in the number of blessed souls. For what does baptism avail us — what the other sacraments, the Scriptures, and Jesus Christ himself, if the impious, the idolaters, and the Epicureans, are saints and in bliss ? And what is this
* Christ. Fidei clara expos. 1536, p. 27. f Praef. Bulling.
II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. G5
else than teaching, that every man may be saved in his own faith and religion * ?"
To answer him was no easy task. Nor did they answer him at Zurich in any other way than by a wretched recrimination, accusing him also of placing amongst the faithful Nebuchad- nezzar, Naaman the Syrian, Abimelech, and many others, who, born out of the Covenant and race of Abraham, were how- ever saved, as Luther says, " by a fortuitous mercy of Godf." But not to defend this Ci fortuitous mercy of God," which in reality is something strange, it is one thing to have said with Luther, that there may have been men out of the num- ber of Israelites, who knew God ; another thing, to place with Zuinglius in the number of blessed souls, such as wor- shipped false divinities ; and if the Zuinglians were right in condemning the excesses and violence of Luther, there was much more reason to condemn this prodigious extravagance of Zuinglius. For, in short, this was not one of those mis- takes into which a man may be betrayed in the heat of dis- course : he was writing a confession of faith, and intended to make a simple and brief exposition of the Apostles' Creed ; a work that, above all others, required a mature consider- ation, exact doctrine, and a settled head. It was in the same strain he had before spoken of Seneca "as of a most holy man, in whose heart God had written the faith with his own hand J," because he had said in his letter to Lucilius " that nothing was hidden from God." Thus we have all the phi- tonic, peripatetic, stoic philosophers enrolled amongst the saints, and full of faith, because St. Paul acknowledges they had understood the invisible things of God by the visible works of his power §; and what furnishes this Apostle with reasons to condemn them in his Epistle to the Romans, has justified and sanctified them, in the opinion of Zuinglius.
21. — The Error of Zuinglius upon original Sin. To teach such extravagances as these, a man must have no notion of Christian justice, or of the corruption of our nature. And, indeed, Zuinglius was quite a stranger to original sin. In that confession of faith, which he sent to Francis I., and in four or five treatises which he made expressly to prove the baptism of the little children against anabaptists, and explain the effect of baptism in this infant age, he does not so much as speak of its cancelling original sin, which, however, is allowed by all Christians to be the chief fruit of their bap-
* Pan-. Com. Luth. Hosp. p. 2. 187. ; -j- Lutb. Horn, in Gen. c. iv. 20.
* (Jper.fi. 6. Dcclar.de Pec. Ong. $ Rom i. 19. VOL. I. F
06 THE HISTORY OP [BOOK
tism. He had done the same in all his other works ; and when this omission of an effect so considerable was objected to him, he shows that he did so designedly, because, in his opinion, no sin is taken away by baptism. He carries still farther his rashness, when he says, " It is no sin, but a misfortune, a vice, a distemper ; that nothing is weaker or more distant from the Scripture sense, than to say, ori- ginal sin is not only a distemper, but also a crime*." In con- formity to these principles, he decides that men indeed are born " prone to sin from their self-love," but not sinners, ex- cept improperly, by taking the penalty of sin for sin itself : and this "pronenessto sin,"" which cannot be sin, makes, according to him, the whole evil of our origin. In the sequel of his dis- course, it is true, he acknowledges that all men would perish, were it not for the grace of the Mediator, because this prone- ness to sin would not fail in time to produce it, were it not stopped ; and it is in this sense he acknowledges that all men are damned by the "force of original sin;" a force which consists not, as we have just now seen, in making men truly sinners, as all Christian churches have decided against Pela- gius, but in making them only " prone to sin," through the weakness of their senses and self-love, which the Pelagians and heathens themselves would not have denied.
The decision of Zuinglius, on the remedy of this evil, is not less strange ; for he maintains that it is taken away from all men whatever, by the grace of Jesus Christ, inde- •pendently of baptism : insomuch that original sin damns no man, not even the children of the heathens. As to those, though he dares not fix their salvation in the same degree of certainty with that of Christians and their children, he says however, that, like the rest, as long as they are incapable of the law, they are in the state of innocence, alleging this text of St. Paul — "where no law is, there is no transgressionf." "Now," proceeds this new doctor, "it is certain that chil- dren are weak, without experience, and ignorant of the law, and are not less without law than St. Paul, when he said, ' I lived without the law heretofore j.' Therefore, as there is no law for them, neither is there any transgression of the law, and, by consequence, no damnation. St. Paul says, that he lived without the law once, but there is no age in which man is more in this state than his infancy ; consequently, it must be said, with the same St. Paul, that without the law sin was dead in them§.'5 Just so disputed the Pelagians against the church. And although, as above stated, Zuinglius here speaks
* Declar. de Pec. Orig. f Rom. iv. 15. J Rom. vii. 9. § Rom. vii. 8,
II.] , THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 07
with greater assurance of the children of Christians than of others, he, however, in reality speaks of all children whatever, without exception. It is plain to what point his proof is directed ; and, certainly, since the time of Julian there never was a more complete Pelagian than Zuinglius.
22. — The error of Zuinglius on Baptism.
Nay, the Pelagians acknowledged, that baptism could at least give grace, and remit the sins of the adult. Zuinglius more rash than they, ceases not to repeat what has been already told of him, " that baptism takes away no sin, and gives no grace." " It is the blood of Jesus Christ,,' says he, " that remits sins, therefore, it is not baptism." Here an in- stance may be seen of that perverted zeal the reformation had for the glory of Jesus Christ. It is more clear than day, that to attribute the remission of sins to baptism, which is the means of taking them away established by Jesus Christ, does no more injury to Jesus Christ, than you offer to a painter, by attributing the fine colouring and the beautiful touches of his picture to the pencil he makes use of. But the reforma- tion carries its vain reasonings to such excess, as to imagine it gives glory to Jesus Christ, to destroy the efficacy of these instruments which he employs. And to continue so gross an illusion to the utmost extremity, when a hundred passages from the Scriptures were objected to Zuinglius, where it is said, that baptism saves us, that it remits our sins ; he thinks he has fully satisfied by answering, that baptism is here taken for the blood of Jesus Christ, of which it is the sign.
23. — Zuinglius accustomed to wrest the Scripture in every thing. — His contempt for antiquity , the source of his error.
Such licentious explications make everything one wishes to be found in Scripture. It is not surprising that Zuinglius there finds that the Eucharist is not the body, but the sign of the body, though Christ has said, " This is my body ;" since he is able to find that baptism does not indeed give the remission of sins, but figures it to us as already given ; though the Scripture has said a hundred times, not that it figures, but gives it to us. It is no matter of surprise that the same author, to destroy the reality which incommoded him, eludes the force of these words, " This is my body ;" since to destroy original sin, which shocked ^him, he was able to evade these words ; ''all have sinned in one man," and again, " by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners*.1' But
* Rom. v. 12, 19. F2
68 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK
still more strange is the confidence of this author in supporting his new interpretations against original sin, with a manifest contempt of all antiquity. i( We have seen," says he, " the ancients teach another doctrine concerning original sin > but in reading them it is easily perceived how obscure and embar- rassed, not to say entirely human, rather than divine, is all they say on that head. For my part, this long time I have not leisure to consult them." In 1526 he composed this treatise ; and for many years before, he had no leisure to consult the ancients, nor go back to the fountain-head. Meanwhile he reformed the church. Why not, will our Reformers say ? And what had he to do with the ancients, since he possessed the Scriptures ? But on the contrary, here is an instance how little safety there is in searching the Scriptures, when one pretends to understand them, without having recourse to antiquity. By understanding the Scriptures in such a manner, Zuinglius discovered there was no original sin, that is to say, there was no redemption ; and the scandal of the cross was made void ; and pushed his notions to such a length, as to place amongst the saints those, who, indeed, whatever he might say, had no part with Jesus Christ. Thus is the church reformed, when men undertake its reformation without concerning them- selves about what was the sense of past ages; and, according to this new method, it is easy to arrive at a reformation like that of the Socinians.
24. — The character of CEcolampadius. Such were the heads of the new reformation. Men of talent, it is true, and not deficient in literature, but bold, rash in their decisions, and puffed up with their vain learning : men who delighted in extraordinary and particular opinions, and, therefore aimed, not only to raise themselves above those of their own age, but also above the most holy of ages past. CEco- lampadius, the other defender of the figurative sense amongst the Swiss, was both more moderate, and more learned ; and if Zuinglius appeared by his vehemence another Luther, CEcolampadius more i*esembled Melancthon, whose particular friend he was also. In a letter, which, when a youth, he wrote to Erasmus, you observe the marks of a piety equally affectionate and enlightened, together with much wit and politeness*. From the feet of the crucifix, before which he had been accustomed to pray, he wrote such tender things to Erasmus on the ineffable sweetness of Jesus Christ, whom this pious image represented so lively to his imagination, that there * Ep. Eiasm, Lib. vii. Ep. 42, 45.
II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 69
is no reading it without being affected. The reformation which came to trouble these devotions, and account them idolatry, began at that time ; for it was in 1517, that he wrote this letter. He entered into religion in the first heat of these disturbances, with much courage and reflection; at an age, as Erasmus observes, too advanced for any impu- tation of youthful precipitancy*. We also learn from the letters of Erasmus, that he was greatly enamoured with the course of life he had undertaken, and relished God in peace of mind, and therein lived quite remote from the novelties that were then spreading. However, (such is human weakness, so great the contagion of novelty,) he left his monastery, preached the new reformation at Basil, where he was pastor, and tired of celibacy, like the rest of the reformers, married a young girl, with whose beauty he was enamoured. *■* This is the way," said Erasmus " they choose to mortify themselves f ;" he could not but admire these new apostles, who were sure to abandon the solemn profession of celibacy to take wives ; whereas, the true apostles of our Saviour, according to the tradition of all the fathers, in order to attend to God and the Gospel only, left their wives to embrace celibacy. " It seems," said he, " as if the reformation aimed at nothing more than to strip a few monks of their habits, and to marry a parcel of priests ; and this great tragedy terminates at last in a con- clusion that is entirely comical, since, just like comedies, all ends in marriage^." The same Erasmus complains, in other places §, that after his friend GEcolampadius had abandoned his tender devotion, together with the church and monastery, in order to embrace this impious -and contemptible reforma- tion, he was no longer the same man ; instead of candour, which this minister professed whilst he acted of himself, no- thing but artifice and dissimulation could be found in him, after he had once entered into the spirit of the party.
25. — The progress of the Sacrameniarian doctrine.
After the Sacramentarian dispute had been raised in the manner we have seen, Carlostadius scattered abroad little tracts against the real presence ; and, although on all hands they were allowed to be replete with ignorance ||, yet they were relished by the people already charmed with novelty. Zuinglius and CEcolampadius wrote in defence of this new doctrine : the first with much wit and vehemence ; the other
* Erasm. Lib. xiii. E[). 12, 1-1. Lib. xiii. 27. f Lib. xix. Ep. 41.
:|; Ep. Erasm. Lib. xix. $ Lib. xviii.Ep.23, 19, 113, 31, 47. Col. 2057, &c.
|| Ibid. Lib. xix. Ep. 113, 31, 5«J. p. 210G.
70 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK
with mucli learning, and so sweet an eloquence, that " were it possible, says Erasmus, and would God have permitted it, it were capable of seducing even the elect*." God put them to this trial ; but his promises and truth upheld the simpli- city of the faith of the church against human reasoning. A little after Carlostadius was reconciled with Luther, and ap- peased him by saying that what he had taught upon the Eucharist, was rather by the way of proposing and examining, than decidingt- This man's life was one uninterrupted scene of feuds ; and the Swiss, who received him a second time, were never able to calm his turbulent temper.
His doctrine spread more and more, but on more plausible interpretations of our Saviour's words than what he had formerly given. Zuinglius said, " the good man said well enough, there was some hidden sense in these divine words, but could never find out what it was." He and CEcolampadius, with somewhat different expressions, agreed on the whole, that these words, " This is my body," were figurative : " Is," said Zuinglius, is as much as to say, sig- nifies ; " body," said CEcolampadius, is the sign of the body. Their leaders, Bucer and Capito, became zealous defenders of the figurative sense. The reformation divided itself; and those who embraced this new party were called Sacramen- tarians. They were also named Zuinglians, either because Zuinglius had first supported Carlostadius, or because his authoritv prevailed in the minds of the people, who were led away by his vehemence.
26. — Zuinglius careful to take from the Eucharist ivhatever ivas raised above the senses.
We must not be surprised that an opinion so favourable to human sense became so fashionable. Zuinglius said posi- tively, there was no miracle in the Eucharist, or any thing incomprehensible ; that the bread broken represented to us the body immolated ; and the wine, the blood shed : that Jesus Christ, at the institution of these sacred signs, had given them the name of the thing itself: that it was not, however, a simple spectacle, nor signs wholly naked, for as much as the remembrance of, and faith in, the body immolated and the blood shed, supported our souls ; that the Holy Ghost meanwhile sealed in our hearts the remission of sins ; and therein consisted the whole mystery. Human reason and-
* Lib. 18. Ep. 9. t Hosp. 2 part, ad an. 1225— f. 40.
II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 71
sense had nothing to suffer from this explication*. The Scripture was all the difficulty : but when one side opposed '.* This is my body," the other answered, " I am the vine; I am the door ; the rock was Christ." True it is, these exam- ples came not to the point. It was not in proposing a para- ble, or explaining an allegory, that Jesus Christ said, " This is my body ; this is my blood." These words, entirely de- tached from the context, carried their full meaning in them- selves,'— a new institution was in hand, — which ought to be made in simple terms, and yet no place in Scripture had been found, where the sign of the institution received the name of the thing itself the moment it was instituted, and without any previous preparation.
27. — Of the Spirit which appeared to Zuinglius, to furnish him icith a passage, where the sign of the institution received immediately the name of the thing instituted.
This argument tormented Zuinglius ; he sought day and night for a solution. In the mean time, however, mass was abolished, in opposition to all the exertions of the town- secretary, who disputed powerfully for the Catholic doctrine and the real presence. Twelve days after, Zuinglius had this dream, with which he and his disciples have been so much upbraided. In it he tells us, that imagining he was dis- puting against the town-secretary, who pressed him closely, on a sudden, he saw a phantom, white or black, appear before himf, who spoke these words, — " Coward, why answerest thou not what is written in Exodus, — * The Lamb is the pass- over J,' — intimating it was the sign ?" This is the celebrated passage so often repeated in the writings of the Sacramenta- rians, in which they thought to have found the name of the thing given to the sign, and in the very institution of the sign ; and thus it was conceived by Zuinglius, who availed himself of it. His disciples will contend, when he said he knew not who suggested this thought, whether he was white or black, he meant only, that it was an unknown person, and true it is, the Latin terms will bear this explication. But, besides that concealing himself, so as not to discover what he was, is the natural character of an evil spirit, Zuinglius was also mani- festly in error : — these words, " The Lamb is the passover," by no means signify it was the figure of the passover. It is a common Hebraism, where the word sacrifice is understood;
* Zuing. Conf. Fill, ad Franc, ct Epist. ad Car. 5.
f Hosp. ii. [>. 25, 26. Exod. xii. 11. \ Exoil.xii.il.
72 THE HISTORY OF [COOK
so sin merely is the sacrifice for sin ; and barely pass- over is the sacrifice of the passover ; which the Scripture itself explains a little farther on, where it says at full length, not that the Lamb is the passover, but the sacrifice of the passover. This most certainly was the sense of that place in Exodus. Other examples were afterwards produced, as we shall see in due time ; but this was the first. There was nothing in it, as we see, that should much comfort the mind of Zuinglius, or that showed him the sign at the very institution received the name of the thing. He awoke, however, at this new explication of his unknown friend, read the place of Exodus, and went to preach what he had disco- vered in his dream. Men were too well prepared, not to believe him : the mists which still i-emained on their minds were dissipated.
28. — Luther writes against the Sacrame?itarians, and why he treated Zuinglius more severely than the rest.
It provoked Luther to see, not only individuals, but whole churches of the new reformation, now rise up against him. But he abated nothing of his accustomed pride. We may judge from these words, — "I. have the Pope in front; I have the Sacramentarians and Anabaptists in my rear ; but I will march out alone against them all ; I will defy, them to battle ; I will trample them under my feet." And a little after, — " I will say it without vanity, that for these thousand years the Scripture has never been so thoroughly purged, nor so well explained, nor better understood, than at this time it is by me*." He wrote' these words in 1525, a little after the contest had commenced. In the same year he composed his book " against the heavenly prophets ;" thereby ridiculing Carlostadius, whom he ac- cused of favouring the visions of the Anabaptists. This book consisted of two parts. In the first he maintained the impro- priety of breaking down images ; that in the law of Moses nothing was prohibited as the object of adoration, but the images of God ; that the images of crosses and of saints were not comprehended in this prohibition ; that none under the gospel were obliged to destroy images by force, because that was contrary to gospel-liberty ; and those who destroyed them were doctors of the law, and not of the gospel. By this reasoning he justified us from all those accusations of idolatry, with which we were unreasonably charged on this
* Ad Maled. KeK. Ang. t. ii. 493.
II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 73
head. In the second part he attacked the Sacramentarians. But CEcolampadius he treated with moderation at the com- mencement ; yet he attacked Zuinglius with violence. This doctor had written, that before the name of Luther was known, he had preached the gospel — that is, the reformation in Switzerland — ever since the year 1516; and the Swiss gave him the glory of this beginning, which Luther arrogated to himself*. Offended at these words he wrote to those of Strasburg, " that he durst assume to himself the glory of first preaching Jesus Christ, but that Zuinglius wished to deprive him of that glory. How is it possible (proceeds he) to be silent, whilst these men disturb our churches and impugn our authority ? If they are unwilling to suffer their own to be weakened ; for the same reason they ought not to weaken ours." In conclusion, he declares, " there is no medium, either he or they must be the ministers of Satanf."
29. — The words of a celebrated Lutheran on the jealousy of Luther against Zuinglius.
An ingenious Lutheran, and the most celebrated of those that have written in our days, here makes this reflection : — " Those who despise all things, and expose not only their fortunes, but their lives, often are not able to raise themselves above glory, so flattering are its chai'ms, so great is human weakness. On the contrary, the higher a man's courage is elevated the more does he covet praises — the more concerned to see those bestowed on others, which he believes due to himself |. It should not be, therefore, a matter of surprise, if a man of Luther's magnanimity wrote those things to those of Strasburg."
30. Luther's strong arguments for the real presence ; and how he boasts of them.
In the midst of these strange transports, Luther, by power- ful arguments, confirmed the faith of the real presence. Both the Scripture, and ancient tradition, supported him in this cause. He demonstrated, that to convert so simple, so precise words of our Saviour to a figurative sense, under pretext that there were figurative expressions in other places of the Scripture, was to open a way by which the whole Scripture, and all the mysteries of our religion, would be
* Zuing. in cxplan. artic. 18 Ges. in Bibl. etc. Calix. Judic. 53. f T. ii. Jen. epist. p. 202. J Calix. Judic. n. 53.
74 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK
turned to figures ; that the same submission was, therefore, required here, with which we receive the other mysteries, without attending to human reasoning, or the hnvs of nature, but to Jesus Christ and his words only ; that our Saviour spoke not, in the institution, either of faith or the Holy Spirit, but said, " This is my body," and not that faith would make you partake of it ; wherefore, the eating, of which Jesus Christ there spoke, was not a mystical eating, but an eating by the mouth ; that the union of faith was con- summated out of the sacrament* ; nor could it be believed that Jesus Christ gave us nothing that was particular by such emphatic words f ; that, it is evident, his intention was to render certain his gift, by giving us his person ; that the remembrance he recommended to us of his death, excluded not his presence, but obliged us to receive this body and this blood as a victim immolated for us ; that the victim became ours, indeed, by manducation ; that, in reality, faith ought then to intervene, in order to make it profitable to us ; but to show that, even without faith, the word of Jesus Christ had its effect, there needed but to consider the communion of the unworthy. He urged here forcibly the words of St. Paul, when, after relating these words, *' This is my body," he condemned so severely those <c who discerned not the body of the Lord, and who rendered themselves guilty of his body and blood £." He added, that St. Paul meant to speak throughout of the *' true body," and not of the body in figure ; and that it was evident from his expressions, that he condemned those impious persons of insulting Jesus Christ, not in his gifts, but immediately in his person.
But where he manifested his greatest strength, was in demolishing the objections which were raised against these heavenly truths. He asked of those who objected to him, " flesh profiteth nothing §," with what assurance they durst say, that the flesh of Jesus Christ profiteth nothing, and apply to this life-giving flesh what Jesus Christ said of the carnal sense, oiv at most, of the flesh taken after the manner in which the Capharnaites understood it, or evil Christians received it, not uniting themselves thereto by faith, nor receiving at that same time that spirit and life with which it abounds ? When they presumed to ask him, What, there- fore, did this flesh avail taken by the mouth of the body, he again asked of these proud opponents, What did it avail
* Serm. dc Corp. et Sang. Christ, defen. Vcrbi Coenae, t. vii. 277, 3S1. t Cat. Mag. de Sac. alt. Concord, p. 551. f 1 Cor. xi. 24, 28, 29.
6 John vi. 63.
II. J THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 15
that the Word was made flesh ? Could not truth have been announced, nor mankind redeemed, but by this means? Are they acquainted with all God's secrets, to say unto him, he had no other way by which to save man ? And who are they, thus to set laws to their Creator, and prescribe to him the means by which he would apply his grace to them ? If, at last, they opposed against him human reasons, how a body could be in so many places at once — a human body, whole and entire, in so small a space? He destroyed all these engines levelled against God, by asking, how God pre- served his unity in the trinity of persons ? how, of nothing, he had created heaven and earth ? how he had clothed his Son in a human body ? how he made him be born of a virgin ? how he delivered him up to death ? and how he was to raise up all the faithful on the last day ? What did human reason pretend by opposing these vain difficulties against God, which he blasted with a breath ? They say that all the miracles of Jesus Christ are sensible *. But who has told them that Jesus Christ did resolve never to work any other ? When he was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of a virgin, to whom was this, the greatest miracle of all, become sensible ? Could Mary have known what it was she bore in her womb, had not the angel announced the divine secret to her ? But when the divinity dwelt corporeally in Christ Jesus, who saw it, or who comprehended it ? Now who sees him at the right-hand of his Father, from whence he exerts his omnipotence over the whole universe ? Is this what obliges them to wrest, to break to pieces, to crucify the words of their Master ? I do not comprehend, say they, how he can execute them literally. They prove to me very well, by this reason, that human sense agrees not with God's wisdom; I allow it; I agree with them : but I never knew before that nothing was to be believed but what we dis- covered by opening our eyes, or what human reason can comprehend.
Lastly : when it was said to him, that this matter was not of consequence, or of sufficient importance for breaking peace : — who then obliged Carlostadius to begin this quarrel ? What forced Zuinglius and CEcolampadius to write? May that peace for ever be accursed, that is made to the prejudice of truth ! By such arguments he often silenced the Zuinglians. It must be acknowledged, he had a great strength of genius ; he wanted nothing but the rule, which can be had no where but in the Church, and under the yoke of a legitimate autho- * Serm. quod verba stent, ibid.
76 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK
rity. Had Luther continued obedient to that yoke, so neces- sary for the regulation of all minds, but especially for fiery and impetuous minds like his, he might have kept his writing free from those transports, those buffooneries, that brutal arrogance, those excesses, or rather extravagances; and the force with which he treated some truths, would not have contributed to seduction. It is for this reason we see him still invincible, when he sets forth the ancient doc- trines he had learned in the bosom of the Church ; but pride closely pursued his victories. So much was this man capti- vated with himself for having fought so strenuously for the proper and literal sense of our Saviour's words, that he could not refrain from boasting of it. " The Papists them- selves," said he, (t are obliged to allow me the praise of having defended the doctrine of the literal sense much better than they. And, in reality, I am assured, were they all melted down into one mass, they never would be able to maintain it with the strength that I do*."
31. — The Zuinglians prove against Luther that Catholics understand the literal sense better than he.
He was mistaken ; for although he fully proved that the literal sense was to be maintained, he knew not how to understand it in all its simplicity ; and the supporters of the figurative sense demonstrated to him, that if the literal sense were to be followed, transubstantiation would carry it. This is what Zuinglius, and all the defenders of the figurative sense, in general, proved most clearly. They observe, that Jesus Christ has not said, " My body is here, or my body is under this, and with this, or this contains my body, but only, This is my body." Thus, what he is to give the faith- ful, is not a substance which contains his body, or which accompanies it, but his body, " without any other foreign substance f." Neither has he said, " This bread is my body," which is another of Luther's explications ; but he has said, "This is my body," by an indefinite term, to show that the substance he gives is no longer bread, but his body.
And when Luther explained " This is my body ;" that is, this bread is my body, really and without figure, contrary to his intentions, he destroyed his own doctrine. For we may very well say with the Church, that bread becomes the body, in the same sense that St. John has said, " the water was made wine £," at the marriage-feast in Cana of Galilee,
* Epist. Luth. ad Hosp. 2 Part, ad An. 1534, f. 132. t Hosp. ad an. 1527, f. 49. $ John ii.9.
II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 77
namely, by the change of one into the other. In the same manner may it be said, that what is bread in appearance, is, in effect, the body of our Lord ; but that true bread, remain- ing such, should be at the same time the true body of our Lord, as Luther maintained, the defenders of the figurative sense proved to him, as did the Catholics, that it was a rea- soning void of sense, and concluded that he ought either to admit a moral change only, together with them, or a change of substance, together with the Papists.
32. — Be za proves the same truth.
It is for this reason that Beza, at the Conference of Mont- beliart, maintains against the Lutherans, that of the two explications which adhere to the literal sense — namely, that of the Catholics, and that of the Lutherans, " It is that of the Catholics which departs least from the words of the institu- tution of the Lord's Supper, were they to be expounded word for word." He proves it by this reason : because " the Transubstantiators say, that by virtue of these divine words, that which before was bread, having changed its substance, becomes immediately the body itself of Jesus Christ, to the end that, by this means, this proposition may be true, (t This is my body/' " Whereas the exposition of the consubstan- tiators, saying, that these words, ' This is my body,' do sig- nify my body is essentially in, with, or under this bread, declares not what is become of the bread, and what that is, which is the body, but only where it is*." This reason is plain and intelligible. For it is clear, that Jesus Christ, having taken bread in order to make it something, must have declared to us what kind of something he did intend to make it ; it is not less evident, that the bread became that which the Almighty did intend to make it. Now these words show he intended to make it his bod)'', whatever that is under- stood, since he said, "This is my body.*' If, therefore, this bread is not become his body in figure, it is become so in effect ; and there is no way to avoid admitting either the change in figure, or the change in substance.
Thus, if we only understand simply the words of Jesus Christ, the doctrine of the Church must be embraced ; and Beza is correct in stating, that it is attended with less diffi- culties, as to the manner of speaking, than that of the Lutherans, that is to say, it is more agreeable to the literal sense f. Calvin frequently confirms the same truth; and, not
* Conf. dc Mont. Imp. a Gen. 1587, p. 52. f Ibid.
78 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK
to dwell on the sense of individuals, a whole synod of Zuin- glians have acknowledged it.
33. — A whole Synod of Zuinglians in Poland establishes the same truth.
It is the Synod of Czenger, a town in Poland, published in the Collection of Geneva. This synod, after having re- jected Papistical Transubstantiation, shows "that the Lu- theran Consubstantiation is untenable," because, "as the wand of Moses was not a serpent but by transubstantia- tion, and the water in Egypt was not blood, nor, at the marriage of Cana, wine, without a change ; so the bread of the supper cannot be the body of Christ substantially, if it be not changed into his flesh, by losing the form and sub- stance of bread *."
It was good sense that dictated this decision. In fact, the bread remaining bread, can be no more the body of our Lord, than the wand remaining a wand, could be a serpent, or than the water remaining water, could be blood in Egypt, or wine at the marriage of Cana. If, therefore, what was bread becomes the body of our Lord, either it becomes so in figure by a mystical change, according to Zuinglius's doc- trine, or it becomes so, in effect, by a real change, as is maintained by Catholics.
34. — Luther understood not the force of these words, " This is my body"
Thus, Luther, who boasted that he alone had defended the literal sense better than all the Catholic divines, was greatly mistaken ; since he did not even comprehend the true ground which holds us to this sense, nor understand the nature of those propositions which operate what they express. Jesus Christ says to that man, " Thy son liveth j." Jesus Christ says to that woman, "Thou art loosed from thine infirmity j." In speaking, he does what he says : nature obeys ; things are changed, and the sick person becomes sound. But words, which regard only accidental things, as health and sickness, operate only accidental changes. Here, where a substance is concerned, for Jesus Christ said, " This is my body, This is my blood," the change is substantial; and by an effect as real as it is surprising, the substance of the bread and of the wine is changed into the substance of the body and the blood.
* Syn. Czeng. tit, tie Cocnu, in Synt. Gen. part 1. f John iv. 50, 51. % Lukexiii. 12.
II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 79
Consequently, when we follow the literal sense, we must not only believe that the body of Jesus Christ is in the mystery, but also that it makes the whole substance of it; and this is what the words themselves lead us to, Jesus Christ not having said, my body is here, or this contains my body, but this is my body ; and he would not even say, this bread is my body, but this, indefinitely. And in the same manner as if he had said, when he changed the water into wine ; that which you are going to drink is wine, it ought not to be understood that he had preserved together both water and wine, but that he had changed the water into wine ; so when he declares, that what he presents is his body, it ought not in any way to be under- stood that he mixes his body with the bread, but that he effectually changes the bread into his body. To this the literal sense leads us, as the Zuinglians themselves acknow- ledge, and this it is which Luther could never understand.
35. — The Sacramentarians proved to Luther that he admitted a kind of figurative sense.
On account of not understanding it, this great defender of the literal sense fell necessarily into a kind of figurative sense. According to him, " This is my body," imported, this bread contains my body, or this bread is joined with my body ; and, by this means, the Zuinglians forced him to acknow- ledge, in this expression, that grammatical figure which sub- stitutes that which containeth for that which is contained, or the part for the whole *. Then they pressed him in this way : if it be lawful for you to admit in the words of the insti- tution, that figure which puts the part for the whole,why will you pi'event us from admitting in them that figure which substitutes the thing for the sign ? Figure for figure, the metonomy which we acknowledge is worth full as much as the synecdoche which you receive. These gentlemen were humanists and grammarians. All their books were soon filled with the synecdoche of Luther, and the metonomy of Zuinglius ; it was necessary for Protestants to engage on one side or other of these two figures of rhetoric ; and it appeared manifest, that none but the Catholics, equally dis- tant from one and the other, and admitting in the eucharist neither bread nor a bare sign, justly established the literal sense.
* Vid. Hosp.2 Part. 12, 35, 17, Gl, 70, 101, &c.
80 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK
36. — The difference between doctrine invented, a?id doctrine received by tradition.
Here was perceived the difference between the doctrines introduced anew by particular authors, and those which come in their natural channel. The change of substance had of itself spread over both the east and the west, entering into all minds together with the words of our Lord, without ever causing any disturbance ; neither were those who believed it, ever marked by the Church as innovators. When it was contested, and men laboured to wrest the literal sense with which it had spread over the whole earth, not only the church remained firm, but also her very adversaries were seen to combat for her, whilst they combated against each other. Luther and his followers proved invincibly that the literal sense ought to be retained. Zuinglius, with his party, established with no less force, that it could not be retained without the change of substance : thus they agreed in this only, to prove against each other, that the church, which they had abandoned, had more reason on her side than any of them : by I know not what force of truth, all those who abandoned her retained something of it, and the Church which kept the whole, gained the victory.
37. — The Catholic sense is visibly the most natural sense.
Hence it clearly follows, that the interpretation of Ca- tholics, who admit the change of substance, is the most natural and the most simple ; both because it is followed by the greatest number of Christians, and because of these two, who impugn it by different ways, one of them, that is Luther, undertook to oppose it purely out of a spirit of con- tradiction, and in spite of the church ; and the other, that is Zuinglius, agrees, that if with Luther the literal sense is to be received, the change of substance must be received also with the Catholics.
38. — Question : whether the Sacrament be destroyed in Transubstantiation ?
Afterwards, the Lutherans, once engaged in error, con- firmed themselves therein with this argument, that it is destroying the sacrament, to take from it, as we do the sub- stance of bread and wine. I am obliged to acknowledge I have not found this reason in anv of the writings of Luther ;
IT.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 81
and, indeed, it is too weak and too far-fetched to occur imme- diately to the mind ; for it is known that a sacrament, that is, a sign, consists in that which appears, not in the interior or substance of the thing. It was not necessary to show Pha- raoh seven real kine, and seven ears of real corn, to notify to him the fertility and the famine of seven years. The image that was formed in his mind was cpaite sufficient for that purpose ; and if we must come to things with which the eyes have been affected, in order that the dove should represent the Holy Ghost, and that chaste love with all its sweetness, which he inspires into holy souls, it was not at all necessary that it should be a real dove which descended visibly upon Jesus Christ ; it was sufficient it had the whole exterior : in the same manner, in order that the Eucharist might specify to us, that Jesus Christ was our bread and our drink, it was suffi- cient that the characters and ordinary effects of these aliments were preserved : in a word, it was enough, there was nothing changed with regard to the senses. In the signs of the in- stitution, that which denotes their force is the intention de- clared by the words of the institutor ; now, by saying over the bread, " This is my body," and over the wine, " this is my blood," and seeming, by virtue of these divine words, actually invested with all the appearances of bread and wine, he shows clearly enough, that he is truly a nourish- ment, who has taken on him the resemblance of it, and under that form appears to us. If, to the reality of the sacra- ment true bread and true wine be necessary, it is likewise true bread and true wine that are consecrated ; and which, by consecration, are made the true body and true blood of our Redeemer. The change that is made in the interior, without any alteration of the exterior, makes also one part of the sacrament — namely, of the sacred sign ; inasmuch as this change become sensible by the words, makes us see that by the words of Jesus Christ operating in a Christian, he ought to be most really, though in a different manner, changed inwardly, retaining only the exterior of other men.
39. — How the names of bread and wine may remain in the Eucharist. — Two rules drawn from Scripture.
Thereby those passages are explained, in which the Eucharist is called bread, even after consecration ; and this difficulty is manifestly solved, by the rule of changes, and the rule of ap- pearances. By the rule of changes, the bread become the body, is called bread, as in Exodus, the wand become a ser-
VOL. I. G
82 THE HISTORY OP [BOOK
pent, is called a wand, and the water become blood, is called water. These expressions are made use of to show at once, both the thing which was made, and the material employed to make it of. By the rule of appearances, in the same manner that, in the Old and New Testament the angels who appeared under human shape, are called, at the same time, angels *, because they are so, and men, because they appear so; so the Eucharist will be both called the body, because it is so, and bread, because it so appears. If, then, one of these two reasons is sufficient to preserve to it the name of bread with- out prejudicing the change, the concurrence of both will be much stronger. And no difficulty should be imagined of discerning truth amidst these different expressions ; for, when the Holy Scripture explains the same thing by different expressions, to prevent all ambiguity, there is always a prin- cipal place, to which the rest are to be reduced, and where things are expressed, such as they are, in precise terms. What if these angels be called men in some places ? there will be a place where it will be clearly seen that they are angels. What if this blood and this serpent be called water and wand ? you will find the principal place, where the change will be specified ; and it is by that the thing should be defined. What will be the principal place, by which we are to judge of the Eucharist, if it be not that of the institution, where Jesus Christ made it to be what it is ? So, when we would name it with relation to what it was, and Avhat it appears, we may call it bread and wine ; but when we would name it with respect to what it is in itself, it will have no other name than that of body and blood. And it is by this it ought to be defined, since it can never be anything else than what it is made by the all-powerful words which gave it being. Both of you, as well Lutherans as Zuinglians, do, contrary to nature, explain the principal text by other places, and both of you, departing from the rule, do sepa- rate still to a greater distance from one another, than you do from the Church which you chiefly aimed to oppose. The Church, which follows the natural order, and reduces all the passages where the Eucharist is mentioned, to that which, beyond dispute, is the principal and foundation of all the others, holds the true key of the mystery ; and triumphs not only over both one and the other, but also over the one by the other.
* Exod.vii. 12,18.
II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 83
40. — Luther dismayed at these disputes ; his dejection de- plored by Melancthon.
In effect, during these Sacramentarian disputes, those who called themselves Reformed, notwithstanding their common interest, which at times united them in appearance, waged a more cruel war against each other than against the Church itself, mutually calling each other " furies, maniacs, slaves of Satan, greater enemies to the truth and the members of Jesus Christ, than the Pope himself;" which to them was saying everything.
In the mean time, the authority which Luther was desirous of maintaining in the new Reformation, that had arisen under his standard, was becoming contemptible. He was overwhelmed with grief; and that haughtiness, which he showed exteriorly, could not support him under that dejec- tion of mind which he felt interiorly ; on the contrary, the more haughty he was, the more insupportable it was to him to be despised by a party, of whom he wished to be the sole leader. The concern he felt communicated itself to Melanc- thon ; " Luther," says he, " causes in me great troubles, by the long complaints he makes to me of his afflictions ; writings, judged not contemptible, have quite dejected and disfigured him ; through the compassion I have for him, I find myself afflicted to the utmost extremity, for the cala- mities of the church. The doubtful vulgar divide them- selves into contrary sentiments ; and had not Jesus Christ promised to be with us even to the consummation of ages, I should apprehend the utter destruction of religion from these dissentions ; for nothing is more true than the sentence which says, through much disputing, truth escapes from us*."
41. — Luther teaches Ubiquity.
Strange agitations of a man, who hoped to see the 1*97 church repaired, and now sees her ready to fall by * r.^c,' the very means taken for her re-establishment ! What comfort could he find in the promises made to us by Jesus Christ of being always with us ? It is for Catholics to nourish themselves with this faith ; for them, who believe the Church can never be overcome by error, however violent the assault, and who, in fact, have ever found her to be invincible. But how can they advance claims to this promise in the new Reformation, whose first foundation, when they separated
* Luth. adJac, Prsep. Brem. Hosp. 82. Lutb. Maj. Conf. ibidem. Zuing. Re-p. ad
Luth, Hosp, 44. Lib.iv. Epk 76, ad Camer.
G 2
84 THE HISTORY OP [BOOK.
from the church, was that Jesus Christ had so forsaken her, as to let her fall into idolatry ? Moreover, though it is true that truth remains always in the Church, and becomes the more purified in proportion as it is attacked, Melancthon was right in thinking, that by much disputation individuals fell into error. There was no error so monstrous, into which the heat of dispute had not impelled the passionate mind of Luther. It made him embrace that monstrous opinion of ubiquity. These are the arguments on which he grounded this strange notion. The humanity of our Lord is united to his divinity ; therefore, the humanity, as well as the other, is everywhere : Jesus Christ, as man, is seated at the right hand of God ; the right hand of God is everywhere ; there- fore, Jesus Christ as man, is everywhere. As man, he was in heaven before he had ascended into it! He was in the monument when the angels said he was not there. The Zuinglians fell into a worse extreme, by saying that God had it not even in his power to put the body of Jesus Christ in several places. Luther runs into another excess, and maintains that this body was necessarily in every place ; that is what he taught in a book already mentioned, which he wrote in 1527, in order to defend the literal sense, and what he ventured to insert in a " Confession of Faith," which he published in 1528, under the title of " The Great Con fession of Faith *."
42. — Luther declares anew that it imports little whether the substance of bread be admitted or taken away ; the gross divinity of this Doctor, at which Melancthon is scan- dalized.
He says, in this last book, that it is of little importance, whether the bread be admitted in the Eucharist or not ; but that it was more reasonable to acknowledge therein.