Birthing Pains

Was he the reforming catholic he thought he was, or was he a heretic like the church thought?  He asked himself, “Are you alone wise?  Is everyone else in error?  Have so many centuries been in ignorance?  What if you have been wrong and dragged many with you into error and eternal damnation?

The Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, by Matthew Barrett

As we know, Luther wasn’t kidnapped.  Well, he was, but not by his enemies.  He was taken in hiding in the Wartburg fortress near Eisenach by two men commissioned by Frederick.  His disguise was Junker Jörg, a knight!  Only a few select individuals knew where he was.

Luther remained in exile for almost a year, until March, 1522.  He was an enemy of the church and an outlaw.  He maintained connections to Wittenberg, through Spalatin and with Melanchthon.  He would write postils, guiding the church in its liturgy and instructing preachers on specific texts.  Through this, his gospel would spread, even while Luther was in hiding.

In addition, he would translate the New Testament into the vernacular, using Erasmus’s Greek New Testament of 1519 as his basis.  Within the year, this project was complete, and by September of that year it was published.  Now the people had a Bible in their language, but they also had Luther’s exegetical and theological thoughts as well.  Rome was, of course, hostile to this – not only that it was translated in the vernacular, but they questioned the legitimacy of the translation in many specific points.

Even while in hiding, reform was in motion in Wittenberg.  Priests would marry, the Mass was said in German, both elements were offered to the laity.  The speed of the reforms was too much for Frederick, but Karlstadt, a leader given Luther’s absence, refused to listen.  The cat was out of the bag, so to speak; once reform began, it could scarcely be contained.

March 6, 1522, Luther stepped foot in Wittenberg after his hiding.  That Sunday, he would preach the first of eight sermons on reform – reform at the right pace and in the right way.  His dress corresponded to this view: still dressed as a medieval Augustinian monk.  Luther’s dress and his message insinuated his disapproval of Karlstadt’s methods.

Luther’s words were, at least in part, pastoral.  The people had to be brought along at a pace that was acceptable. 

“I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force.  I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing.”

“I did nothing; the Word did everything.”

Yet, by 1523, even Luther felt it was time to speed things up.  Serving the bread and wine was first on the list.  As the Christian is justified by faith, the entire service had to be reconstructed – to celebrate what Christ had accomplished, once and for all.  This through the preached Word, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper.

For Luther, this was not an innovation, but a return to the practice before the many papal innovations.  He saw this as a return to the true meaning of the liturgy, in accord with the apostles and even the early Church Fathers.

…Luther retained the Gloria Patri, the Apostles’ Creed, the elevation of the bread, kneeling before the Lord’s table, and other medieval church practices.  And when Luther considered the flow of the liturgy as a whole, he kept monastic elements such as lectio, meditatio, oratorio.  Eventually he added a fourth: tentatio. 

Even when German eventually replaced Latin in the service, Luther did not insist this had to be so.

This brings us to one of the dark chapters in Luther’s career: his response to the Peasants’ Revolt of 1525.  The peasants worked in the dirt and slept in the dirt; they lived in clay huts; taxes were regularly raised.  They tired of the autocratic methods of their lords.  They felt their cause was just, especially looking through a Lutheran lens.

The peasants had listened to Luther when he taught them that the plowboy with the Scriptures was better fortified than the pope himself.

Their riots started small, but grew.  At first, Luther tried to be diplomatic.  Luther had written his Admonition to Peace, an attempt to motivate the princes to be flexible and to motivate the peasants to not take up the sword.  By the time this document was complete, it was too late.

The peasants wasted no time in revolting, looting, setting castles and monasteries on fire, even spilling blood.  Luther was infuriated. … Whatever patience he had harbored was now liquidated.

The result?  He penned Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants. 

“Fine Christians they are.  I think there is not a devil left in hell; they have all gone into the peasants.”

His counsel to the princes: “Stab, smite, slay.”  In this, Catholic and Protestant princes would join forces.  Perhaps something like eighty thousand died in battle.  Farmers and laborers against trained soldiers; it was a bloodbath.  Even after all this, Luther did not regret his previous writings.

Meanwhile, while Luther continued to evade punishment, other reformers were not so fortunate.  Jan van Essen and Hendrick Vos were the first post-Reformation martyrs.  There were several others, beaten, stabbed, burned. 

Luther would continue his work, now against Erasmus.  First, the topic of obeying the pope.  Erasmus believed this was always required: Luther, only when the pope’s commands were just.  Luther believed his primary allegiance was to preach God’s Word. 

While both men agreed that reform was necessary, Erasmus stayed within the church.  Eventually, he decided to disassociate himself from Luther.  Erasmus, prompted by the latest bull condemning Luther, would publish The Freedom of the Will, and Luther would respond with The Bondage of the Will.  Free will, grace, works, faith; God’s will. 

Barrett goes into some details regarding the disagreements; however, I will skip over these.  I think the dividing lines on these points are well-known and my intent isn’t to flush these out in any case.

The next push to get Luther was to come at the Diet of Speyer in 1526.  The purpose was to impose Worms.  However, the diet was sidetracked.  The main issue was financial: the Turks were on the move, and more troops were needed if Hungary and Austria were to be defended. 

Lutherans were ready to provide support, but not if the emperor put a stop to their reformation efforts and further condemn Luther.  It was decided that all territories sympathetic to the Lutherans could continue their reforms, and no punishment should be inflicted.

Conclusion

The reforms had to be solidified.  Each parish would be evaluated and assisted with the necessary changes; Luther would take up a rigorous preaching schedule; Luther would write catechisms and hymns.  The last might have been most important. 

Yes, his publications were pervasive, and his sermons influential.  But the reformed convictions were imbibed through song.

Epilogue

The peace after Speyer lasted only as long as the emperor had need.  A few years later, Speyer reconvened, and the Lutherans were commanded to return to the Catholic Church – or else.  They would not, and it was clear by this time that the split was more or less permanent. 

It would be helpful if the Protestants remained united, given the ongoing threat.  But schism stood in the way, this regarding the Lord’s Supper.