"Beza, who was a Frenchman, (says Florimond,)* and the great buttress of Calvin's opinions, attacked Luther's version as impious, novel, and unheard of." "Truly, (retorted the Lutherans,) it well becomes a French merry-andrew, who understands not a word of our language, to teach the Germans to speak German. MELANCTHON. Let us confine ourselves to the judgment passed upon him by those of his communion. The Lutherans declared in full synod: "That he had so often changed his opinions upon the supremacy of the Pope, upon justification by faith alone, upon the Lord's Supper and free-will, that all this his wavering inconstancy had staggered the weak in these fundamental questions, and prevented a great number from embracing the confession of Augsburg: that by changing and rechanging his writings he had given too much reason to the Episcopalians to set off his variations, and to the faithful to know no longer what doctrine to consider as true." They add: "that this famous work upon the theological common places would much more appropriately de called a Treatise upon Theological witticisms.” Schlussemberg goes so far as to declare: "that being struck from above by a spirit of blindness and dizziness, Melancthon afterwards did nothing but fall from one error into another, till at last he himself knew not what to believe." He says moreover, that: "Melancthon had evidently impugned the divine truth, to his own shame and the perpetual disgrace of his name."§ CECOLAMPADIUS. The Lutherans wrote in the Apology for their Lord's Supper, that Ecolampadius, a fautor of the Sacramentarian opinion, speaking one day to the landgrave, said: "I would rather have my hand cut off than that it should ever write any thing against Luther's opinion respecting the Lord's Supper."|| When this was told to Luther, by one who had heard it, the hatred of the patriarch of the reform seemed immediately softened down. On learning the death of Ecolampadius, he exclaimed: “Ah! miserable and unfortunate Ecolampadius, thou was the prophet of thy own misery, when thou didst appeal to God to exercise his vengeance on thee, if thou taughtest a false doctrine. May God forgive thee; if thou art in such a state that he can forgive thee." While the inhabitants of Basle were placing the following epitaph on his tomb in the cathedral: "John Ecolampadius, Theologian.... first preacher of evangelical doctrine in this town and true bishop of the temple ;" Luther was positive and sure, and afterwards wrote on his side, that "the devil, whom Ecolampadius employed, strangled him during the night in his bed. This is the excellent master (continues he) who taught him that there are contradictions in Scripture. See to what Satan brings learned men."¶ *Florimond, p. 96. Theol. Calvin, lib. ii, p. 91. + Colloq. Altenb., fol. 502, 503, year 1568. § Ibid. p. 92. See Florim., p. 175. REFORMERS PORTRAYING THEMSELVES. OCHIN. 473 This religious man, superior of the Capuchins, leaving Italy and his order, where he had acquired a great reputation for the austerity of his life and his distinguished talent in preaching, repaired to Peter Martyr in Switzerland, where, after striking acquaintance with the Sacramentarians, he went a step further and preached up Arianism. "He is become (wrote Beza to Diducius) a wicked lecher, a fautor of the Arians, a mocker of Christ and his Church."* 'Tis true that Ochin had, on his part, been equally severe upon the religionists of Geneva and Zurich; for in his dialogue against the sect of terrestrial Gods, he thus expressed himself in their regard.... "These people are desirous that we should hold as an article of faith whatever comes from their brain. He who does not choose to follow them is a heretic. What they dream of in the night (an allusion to Zuinglius) is committed to writing, is printed and held as an oracle. Do not think that they will ever change. So far are they from being disposed to obey the church, that on the contrary the church must obey them. Is not this being popes? Is it not being gods upon earth? Is it not tyrannizing over the consciences of men?” Such were the principal authors of the religious and political excitements that desolated the Church and the world in the sixteenth century. They were perfectly acquainted with each other; they had seen one another, had conferred together in different conferences; they labored with emulation, if not with unanimity, at the work, which they called reform. It is impossible at the present day to form respecting their doctrine, their characters and persons, more correct notions than those which they themselves entertained respecting them, and which they have transmitted to us. It would therefore be unreasonable in us not to refer to the reciprocal testimonies they have borne to one another. Neither is it less true, that if we go by their own judgments, we can not but consider them as odious beings and unworthy ministers, whether they have mutually done justice to one another or have calumniated one another. In a word, the only point upon which they agree is to blacken and condemn one another, and it is but too certain that this point, in which they were all agreed, is also the only one upon which they were all right. You then who have just heard them revealing to the world their own turpitude, will you continue any longer to take them as your guides, your masters, your fathers in faith? Hitherto you have only been taught to look upon them as extraordinary beings, endowed with sanctity, virtue, and all the gifts of heaven; and with this persuasion, you felt proud to call yourselves their disciples and children. You now see your mistake; you see what they were; they have told it you themselves. Believe them upon this point, and it is enough to make you abandon them on all others, and to abjure, since you can do it, a descent that must from henceforth be so disgraceful and ignominious in your eyes. What could religion expect from such men? What profit could the world receive from their preaching? What actually were the effects produced? Here also they shall be our instructors. "The world grows worse and becomes more wicked every day. Men are now more given to revenge, VOL. I.-40 * Florimond, p. 296. T more avaricious, more devoid of mercy, less modest and more incorrigible ; in fine more wicked than in the Papacy."* "One thing, no less astonishing than scandalous, is to see that, since the pure doctrine of the gospel has been brought again to light, the world daily goes from bad to worse." The noblemen and the peasants are come to such a pitch, that they boast and proclaim, without scruple, that they have only to let themselves be preached at, that they would prefer being entirely disenthralled from the word of God; and that they would not give a farthing for all our sermons together. And how are we to lay this to them as a crime, when they make no account of the world to come? They live as they believe: they are and continue to be swine: they live like swine and they die like real swine.”‡ Calvin, after declaiming against atheism, which was prevailing above all in the palaces of princes, and in the courts of justice, and the first ranks of his communion. "There remains still (adds he) a wound more deplorable. The pastors, yes, the pastors themselves who mount the pulpit.... are at the present time the most shameful examples of waywardness and other vices. Hence their sermons obtain neither more credit nor authority than the fictitious tales uttered on the stage by the strolling player. And these persons are yet bold enough to complain that we despise them and point at them for scorn. As for me, I am more inclined to be astonished at the patience of the people: I am astonished that the women and children do not cover them with mud and filth."} "Those whom I had known to be pure, full of candor and simplicity, (says one whom no one suspects,) these have I seen afterwards, when gone over to the sect (of the Evangelicals) begin to speak of girls, flock to games of hazard, throw aside prayer, give themselves up entirely to their interests, become the most impatient, vindictive, and frivolous; changed in fact from men to vipers. I know well what I say."|| "I see many Lutherans, but few Evangelicals. Look a little at these people, and consider whether luxury, avarice, and lewdness do not prevail still more amongst them than amongst those whom they detest. Show me any one, who by means of his gospel is become better. I will show you very many that have become worse. Perhaps it has been my bad fortune; but I have seen none but who are become worse by their gospel." ¶ "Luther was wont to say that after the revelation of his gospel, virtue had become extinct, justice oppressed, temperance bound with cords, virtue torn in pieces by the dogs, faith had become wavering, and devotion lost."** It was at that time a saying in Germany, expressive of their going to spend a jovial day in debauch: "Hodie Lutheranice vivemus: We will spend to-day like Lutherans."++ "And if the Sovereigns do not evangelize and interpose their authority to appease all these disputes, no doubt the Churches of Christ will soon be infested with heresies, which will ultimately bring on their ruin.... By these multiplied paradoxes the foundations of our religion are shaken, heresies crowd into the Churches of Christ, and the way is thrown open to atheism."‡‡ *Luther in Postilla sup. i, dom. advent. Id. in Serm. Conviv. German. fol. 55 § Liv. sur les scandales, p. 128. Id Ep. a an. 1526. Id. on the 1st Ep. to the Corinthians, xv. Erasm. Epist. to the brethren of Lower Germany. **Aurifaber, fol. 628, v. Florim. p. 225. tt Bened. Morgenstern, Traité de l'Eglise, p. 221. Sturm, Ratio ineundæ concord. p. 2, an. 1579. REFORMERS PORTRAYING THEMSELVES. 475 "Did any age ever witness persons of each sex and of every age give up themselves, as ours do, to intemperance and the fire of their passions?.... (said one of the first witnesses of the reform). Men now receive as a divine oracle that saying of Luther's that it is no more possible for a person to restrain his desires than his saliva, nor more easy for man and woman to dispense with one another than for them to go without eating and drinking. Impossible, do you hear it sung on all sides, and in all tones, impossible not to sacrifice to Venus, when the time of life arrives."* "Do we not see at the present day (cries out another witness) youth even giving into debauch, and if they are withdrawn from it, loudly demanding to be married. The young women also, whether already fallen, or only as yet lascivious, are perpetually throwing in your face that impudent sentence of Luther's, that continence is impossible, seeing that Venus is not less necessary than eating; according to the new fashion, children marry and from them no doubt are to spring the valiant champions who are to drive the Turk beyond the Caucasus."+ "We are come to such a pitch of barbarity that many are persuaded that if they fasted one single day, they would find themselves dead the night following."‡ "It is certain that God wishes and requires of his servants a grave and Christian discipline; but it passes with us as a new papacy and a new monkery. We have lately learned (say the religionists of our times), that we are saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ, without any other help than his merits and the grace of God." "And, that the world may know they are not papists and that they have no confidence in good works, they perform none. Instead of fasting, they eat and drink day and night, they change prayers into swearing; and this is what they call the re-established gospel, or the reformation of the gospel, said Smidelin." "We are not to be astonished that in Poland, Transylvania, Hungary and other countries, many pass over to Arianism and some to Mahomet; the doctrine of Calvin leads to these impieties."|| Certainly, to speak the truth, there is much more conscientiousness and uprightness among the greatest part of papists than among many ProtestAnd if we examine past ages, we shall find more sanctity, devotion, zeal, although blind, more charity and fidelity to one another, than is seen at present among us."¶ ants. "Let them (the Protestants) I say, look with the eye of charity upon them (the Catholics) as well as severity, and they shall finde some excellent orders of government, some singular helpes for increase of godlinesse and devotion, for the conquering of sinne, for the profiting of virtue; contrariewise, in themselves, looking with a lesse indulgent eye than they doe, they shall finde, there is no such absolute perfection in their doctrine and reformation."** This is enough, without adding to these testimonies, those of Capito, Bucer, and Melancthon, who may find place in the following letter, and Sylv. Czecanovius de corrupt. morib. + Wigandus, de bonis et malis German. Melancth. on the sixth chapter of St. Matthew. Jacob Andræus. on St. Luke, ch. xxi, 1583. Id. Preface contre l'Apol. de Danous. Stubb's motive to good works, p. 43, an. 1596. ** A Relation of the state of Religion and with what Hopes and Policies it hath been framed and is maintained in the several states of the Western parts of the world. Sec. 48. By Sir Edwin Sanders, Printed London, 1605. without transcribing here upon England what is told us by Strype, Camden, Dugdale, and even by Henry VIII. in a declaration to his parliament.* Such then were the first fruits of the Reformation! and such we learn them to have been from its authors themselves, from its promoters and its first witnesses. Their confessions, their lamentations, wrung from them by the extent and notoriety of the scandal, will eternally proclaim to the world, that with the reform were propagated vices and disorders; that in the countries where it was adopted, and in proportion as it gained ground, devotions was seen to be weakened, piety extinguished, morals deteriorated, faith gradully lost in the multitude, and even among the ministers themselves; so much so that to this day, in the cradle and center of Calvinism, at Geneva, where they abound, you will scarcely find four or five, (I know it for certain,) who will consent to preach the divinity of our Saviour and teach it in their catechetical instructions. And yet there have been persons bold enough to hold out the progress of such a reform as a proof of the divine protection: as if we could acknowledge as its apostles such men as they have reciprocally described themselves to be: as if it could take parts in disorders, smile upon the propagation of vice, and favor the decaying of faith and Christianity. NOTE B, PAGE 90. LUTHER'S CONFERENCE WITH THE DEVIL. In Turnbull's complete translation of Audin's Life of Luther, this entire conference is given in the Appendix in the original Latin. We here republish the substantially correct translation of the American edition. "I ONCE Suddenly awoke about midnight: Satan began to dispute with 'Listen to me, learned doctor,' says he. 'During fifteen years you have daily celebrated private Masses. What if all those Masses have been me. *See Letters of Atticus, pp. 64, 65; 3d edition, London, 1811. I beg the reader to make also the following remarks: It is a fact that, before the Reformation, infidels were scarcely known in the world: it is a fact that they are come forth in swarms from its bosom. It was from the writings of Herbert, Hobbes, Bloum, Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke, and Boyle, that Voltaire and his party drew the objections and errors, which they have brought so generally in fashion in the world. According to Diderot and d'Alembert, the first step that the untractable Catholic takes is to adopt the Protestant principle of private judgment. He establishes himself judge of his religion, leaves it and joins the reform. Dissatisfied with the incoherent doctrines he then discovers, he passes on to the Socinians, whose inconsequences soon drive him into Deism; still pursued by unexpected difficulties, he throws himself into universal doubt, where still experiencing uneasiness, he at last resolves to take the last step, and proceeds to terminate the long chain of his errors in Atheism. Let us not forget that the first link of this fatal chain is attached to the fundamental maxim of private judgment. It is therefore historically correct, that the same principle that created Protestantism three centuries ago, has never ceased since that time to spin it out into a thousand different sects, and has concluded by covering Europe with that multitude of free thinkers, who place it on the verge of ruin. When sects beget infidelity and by infidelity revolutions, it is plain that the political safety of the states will only be secured by a return to religious unity. |