# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 07 08_S179
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

179

on earth, desires to serve, must take upon himself the vow of perpetual chastity, and must ever keep this in his mind, that he is a member of a society which is chiefly founded for this, that it should direct all its attention and diligence to the propagation and spreading of the faith by public preaching, and especially by the instruction of the young, of the simple and ignorant in Christianity, and by the consolation of believers in confession. About this time Ignatius sent several of his companions to Germany, in order to bring the German churches, which had fallen away from the papal see, back under the papal yoke by such preachers as were fit for it; for this he held to be the only means of accomplishing such a work. After these, by an attempt made, had shown that they could and would do more harm to the German churches by their hypocrisy than all the superstition and bigotry of all the monastic orders taken together, the Cardinal Johannes Moronius, who in the last Tridentine Synod was papal legate and president of the Synod, communicated to Ignatius a plan by which he, Ignatius, could render the Papal Church extraordinarily important services; namely, if in Rome a very large college were built, in which a very large number of German youths should be educated and trained in the sciences and in religion at the expense of the Pope, in order that afterwards, when they should return again to their fatherland, they might raise up again to some extent the fallen and downtrodden papal religion there and bring it into flower. And to this work the Jesuits set themselves in the year of our Lord 1553, and built at Rome such a college, not far from the Jesuit college. These youths, however, relates Andradius, are not received into this college for the purpose of being afterwards received into the Order of the Jesuits; but he says the Jesuits have only the care of maintaining, educating, and instructing them; and for the undertaking of this labor they were moved solely by a desire and longing for the welfare of Germany, that namely through such emissaries and messengers Germany might be gradually brought back again into the bosom of the holy Church; or, if that be too little, again to the foot-kissing of the holy papal feet. Of this Jesuit plan Andradius promises himself and his fellows so happy a success and progress, that he says: I doubt not that through the labor and diligence of these youths Germany will once more obtain again the light of the faith (the papal, namely) which was taken from her. And just this is what I had said beforehand in my little book: namely, that the sect of the Jesuits was created quite especially for the ruin of the Church of Germany. This, however, Joh. Alber of Ingolstadt sought to roll off from the Order by bold denial. But to Andradius we owe thanks that he has set forth to us the whole circumstance of the founding of the Order, its nature, purpose, and destination, so simply and plainly, and without any concealment, that we now no longer have need to guess, according to mere rumors or conjectures, with what intent the Roman See has obtruded this new offspring upon mankind in these last times of the world. This now is the narrative which I wished to put before my writing, in order to take leave of the Jesuits with some measure of good will. For in this writing I have purposed to deal not with the Jesuits, who shun the light; but with the book of Andradius, which contains "orthodox explanations of disputed articles," which are indeed explanations of the decrees of the Council of Trent, I shall have to do in this my writing, which is to be an examination of these decrees and explanations. For Andradius was a principal person in the deliberations of the Tridentine Synod; he wielded the pen at the Synod; he wrote his books against me also at the Council itself, and that at the advice and request of the most distinguished fathers of the Synod. He also explains much that in the synodical decisions is so veiled and concealed that no one would easily notice or find it in reading, quite plainly and tangibly, as shall be shown in the proper places. Since, then, I had received into my hands at one and the same time the revilings of Andradius and the decrees of the Council, I doubted not that the way and manner had thereby been shown me how I should arrange my answer and examination of the decrees together with the explanations of Andradius. For the decrees of the Synod are set down briefly and nakedly; but what deliberations went before; from what grounds and sources the decisions were taken; with what craft and art the decrees were forged and fabricated; what sense and purpose they have; — this the expositions of Andradius show to some extent. For he remained at Trent (Trient) until the completion and close of the Council; and made his expositions there in the midst of the proceedings; and in all the sessions he partly directed the deliberations, partly took an active share in them. When, therefore, I shall have compared the expositions of Andradius with the decrees of the Council, and both again with the rule of the Holy Scripture, and shall have tried and examined them by it, there will arise and proceed from this treatment and labor an "Examen, or Examination of the Decrees, that is, the Doctrinal Definitions and Decisions of the Tridentine Synod; from which I hope for the Christian reader a considerable benefit and fruit. (Such an examination of the doctrinal definitions and decrees of the Tridentine Synod upon the article of justification is contained also in the present treatise of Chemnitz, into which we have, for very obvious reasons, inserted his report concerning the origin and foundation, purpose and destination of the Order of the Jesuits.)

We have already seen, and shall see more in what follows, how especially and particularly also in this important chief article of justification the Council of Trent, and chiefly the Jesuits, with all craft and art, with all the weapons of philosophy, dialectic, and scholastic theology, seek to obscure and falsify this doctrine of the Gospel concerning justification, which alone founds and secures the liberty of the Christian and of the Church, in order to undermine and rob Christians of their liberty, and to spread and establish ever further the dreadful, ruinous tyranny of the Pope and of the hierarchy. For they know well how much depends upon this doctrine of the Gospel: For by this doctrine, says Luther, the devil, Antichrist, and Pope are overpowered, his kingdom broken, law, sin, and death (by whose help, as three mighty and invincible tyrants, he had brought the whole human race under him) are violently wrested from him, and at last those whom he had held captive in the kingdom of darkness to eternal bondage are brought to the kingdom of light and of liberty. Should not this make the devil sick at heart, and vex him? Should he so silently sleep over it and let it happen? Or should he not rather, as a father of lies, try all his arts and powers against it, that he might thoroughly root out and destroy this doctrine, from which all salvation, blessedness, and eternal life come? It is certain that Paul, in his epistle to the Galatians and in all his other epistles, complains of nothing more than that Satan had effected and accomplished this through his apostles (and emissaries) in good measure, while he was still alive and had to look on himself.

(Continuation follows.)

For the "Lutheraner."

The Old Heathen Put the New to Shame.

A heathen, who lived before the birth of Christ, has said: What is so light-minded and so unworthy of a serious and sober man as to assert something which one has not duly investigated and known, without the least doubt?

The new heathen, the enemies of the Bible in our days, however, assert what they have not duly investigated and known, with the greatest assurance.

Therefore even the old heathen put the new to shame, and these stand before those as light-minded people and unworthy of the name of serious and sober men.