# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 11 26_S50
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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pluck up, and break down, and destroy, and to overthrow, and to build and to plant, etc., etc. And if He has wished to frighten them with Dr. Luther's harsh writings, they may call God to account for it, but they will contend with Him about it in vain."

To this place belongs further what Matth. Ratzenberger, as an eyewitness, reports of both men: "As modest (unassuming) as Philippus M. was in his publicis scriptis (public writings), so readily did he let himself be provoked to anger, vel in privatis, vel in publicis disputationibus (in public and private disputations), so that with many an opponent, where he could not set forth his argument so elegantly or formally, where it would well have been needful, he would not hear him out, and bade him be quiet and give room to another. Lutherus, on the other hand, always had this custom and way, that, as vehement as he otherwise was in his public polemical writings, so placid and gentle was he toward everyone, vel in privatis colloquiis (in private conversations) vel in publicis disputationibus (in public disputations) in the Collegio, so that often, when an opponent in the Collegio brought forward a weak argument, Lutherus would always himself assume such a poor argument, give it a very elegant Formam and manner, better than it had been brought forward, and would always confirm the same with such weighty circumstances, far more splendidly than it could have occurred to the opponent; thereupon he would solvirt (resolve) the same argument again with excellent reasons, so that everyone was not only well satisfied with it, but could learn far more from it than he himself had intended." (See Hallische auserlesene Anmerk. II., 267.) Thus, as here described, Melanchthon himself appears at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, some months after the delivery of the Confession: on the one side, as regards doctrine, yielding; as regards his own person, vehement and hot-tempered. So, among others, the pious Hieronymus Baumgärtner of Augsburg, where he was present as a deputy of the city of Nuremberg, writes to Lazarus Spengler in the latter city: "God has of special grace ordained that the Confession has been brought forth and once delivered; otherwise our Theologis would long since have confessed something different. Philippus has become more childish than a child. Therefore I beg you, for God's sake and for the sake of His Word, that you also do your part and write to Dr. M. Luther that he, as the one by whom God first opened His Word again to the world, should rush upon Philippo with force, and should warn the pious princes, but especially his own lord, against him, and exhort them to steadfastness.

He has also fallen into such presumption that he not only will hear no one speak or counsel otherwise concerning it, but also comes out with unseemly scolding, in order to frighten everyone and to dampen them with his estimation and authority. I write this not gladly of him, since he has until now been held in such high esteem by everyone, whereby I would also let it rest, and yet have often yielded much to him against my conscience." (Of the 13th and 15th of Sept., 1530. See Samml. von Alten und neuen theol. Sachen. 1730.)

But whether the yielding disposition in matters of faith, such as is praised in Melanchthon "in deep humility and tender conscientiousness," can have its ground there, and whether on the other hand Luther's unbending firmness sprang from pride, on this we wish to hear his own declaration, which he gives in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (Chap. 2, v. 6), where he says: "That we should let the dear, comforting Gospel, faith, and Christ Himself be taken from us, that is too much, and that we can not, nor shall, nor will suffer, and may that damned, harmful, and blasphemous humility be cursed forever in the abyss of hell which in this matter would let itself be pressed down and give way; but let everyone, if he will not otherwise deny Christ, be herein only proud and bold, stiff and defiant. Therefore, God willing, my head shall also be harder herein than that of all my enemies together, if they were yet twice as many, and I will also in this matter be and be held to be nothing else than headstrong, hard, stiff, proud, etc., etc. And this shall be my motto: Cedo nulli, that is, out of the way, whatever is in the way; here he comes driving along who yields to no one. And it does my heart good and pleases me that I am called obstinate, headstrong, and defiant in this matter; for I confess here openly that I am stiff, defiant, and headstrong in this matter, and such my headstrongness and hard head I will, God willing, also keep, and will not yield a hair's breadth, let it go as it may."

We must here call attention further to some particulars in the description of Luther quoted above. It is said of him: "Battle was his proper element," just as if L. had always been glad to seek occasion for strife and contention and had felt himself so much at home in it, like the fish in the water, whereas the beginning and progress of the Reformation show sufficiently that he was compelled and forced to the fight. "All his deeds are battles;" that is about the same as if one wished to assert of the prophet Elijah that all his deeds were that he slew the priests of Baal; whereas that L. did not merely fight, but, as Melanchthon testifies in the passage above, also planted and built, a cursory glance at the great work of the Reformation teaches. But he built, as it is written Neh. 4, on the temple of the LORD in such a way that with one hand he did the work and with the other held the weapons against all who would hinder such building.

But what is one to say to the assertion: "in all his words one smells powder?" For that, in truth, one needs a very fine nose or a strong imagination. As surely only few readers of L.'s writings will agree with this judgment, so, on the contrary, many readers will have had similar experiences to those of the dear Elector John Frederick the Magnanimous in his captivity, when he said: Dr. M. Luther's writings were hearty, went through marrow and bone, and had the right spirit in them; for if he read a sheet of other writings and then held but a little leaf of Luther's against it, he found more sap and strength, also more comfort in it, than in a whole sheet of other scribes."

But if the assertion that in all L.'s words one smells powder is meant to say that on every occasion he bore witness against all manner of enemies of the truth, then we can regard this only as something very praiseworthy and worthy of imitation, especially in our time, so rich in Babylonian confusion and powerful seduction.

If, further, it is censured in L. that he was not seldom too stormy, this censure stands in plain contradiction to the admission made in the same place, that he was especially suited to be the author and champion of the Reformation. The expression that he not seldom let himself run like an untamed steed is as ignoble as it is untrue, and a new contribution to many similar slanders.

The reproach that L. made the sharpest attacks upon persons like Eck, Emser, Henry VIII., sounds as if one wished to make it a reproach to the hero David how he dealt with Goliath, instead of praising with the daughters of Israel: "Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands." Let one but read the bitter and coarse polemical writings of L.'s enemies and compare with them his replies, as also the writings of defense composed by him on that account (e.g., concerning Eck in Walch, 15, 1533 and following, and concerning Henry VIII., ibid., 19, 435 ff.), and one will without doubt come to a different conviction, unless one himself holds fast to errors which L. sharply rebukes.

Of Melanchthon it is said, on the other hand: "He was to restrain L.'s wild strength, to subdue his passionateness, and to hold him back from many an inconsiderate step." The words of L. quoted in this connection, however, do not prove what they are meant to prove, since in them he only characterizes his own and Mel.'s quite different activity, and says that he, L., must root out stumps and stones and hew away thorns and hedges, while Mel., on the field thus prepared, comes along neatly and quietly, sows and waters with delight. The above assertion is therefore likewise to be regarded as one taken out of the air, until it is established by definite testimonies. The same holds of the remark thrown out with it: "we cannot know whither L. in his anger might yet have strayed without the good genius of this noble, virginal spirit. But it is easy to suppose." L., then, has in his anger strayed quite often, but whither is wisely not said; probably, however, they had in mind his mighty rebuke of those who defended false doctrine, namely in the Lord's Supper. Otherwise we should be very eager to obtain closer information, both about the manifold aberrations of the wrathful L. that have already occurred, and about those not yet occurred, "but easy to suppose." So the dear Luther, resting in God, whom Mel. himself, with a thousand others, calls his father, teacher, chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof, must let himself be compared to a man who in his blind wrath runs about, foams, and rages, causes nothing but terror and destruction, and would have caused still more if Mel. had not held him back! On the other hand, we have sufficient reason to know whither the