of his age, during which he composed it, in the full possession of the positive truth and peace of
the religion of Christ.^246
Luther sent the book to Pope Leo X., who was too worldly-minded a man to appreciate it;
and accompanied the same with a most singular and undiplomatic, yet powerful polemic letter,
which, if the Pope ever read it, must have filled him with mingled feelings of indignation and
disgust. In his first letter to the Pope (1518), Luther had thrown himself at his feet as an obedient
son of the vicar of Christ; in his second letter (1519), he still had addressed him as a humble subject,
yet refusing to recant his conscientious convictions: in his third and last letter he addressed him as
an equal, speaking to him with great respect for his personal character (even beyond his deserts),
but denouncing in the severest terms the Roman See, and comparing him to a lamb among wolves,
and to Daniel in the den of lions. The Popes, he says, are vicars of Christ because Christ is absent
from Rome.^247 Miltitz and the Augustinian brethren, who urged him to write an apologetic letter
to Leo, must have been sorely disappointed; for it destroyed all prospects of reconciliation, if they
had not been destroyed already.
After some complimentary words about Leo, and protesting that he had never spoken
disrespectfully of his person, Luther goes on to say, —
"The Church of Rome, formerly the most holy of all churches, has become the most
lawless den of thieves, the most shameless of all brothels, the very kingdom of sin, death,
and hell; so that not even Antichrist, if he were to come, could devise any addition to its
wickedness."Meanwhile you, Leo, are sitting like a lamb in the midst of wolves, like Daniel in the
midst of lions, and, with Ezekiel, you dwell among scorpions. What opposition can you
alone make to these monstrous evils? Take to yourself three or four of the most learned
and best of the cardinals. What are these among so many? You would all perish by poison,
before you could undertake to decide on a remedy. It is all over with the court of Rome:
the wrath of God has come upon her to the uttermost. She hates Councils, she dreads to
be reformed, she cannot restrain the madness of her impiety; she fills up the sentence
passed on her mother, of whom it is said, ’We would have healed Babylon, but she is not
healed; let us forsake her.’ It had been your duty, and that of your cardinals, to apply a
remedy to these evils; but this gout laughs at the physician’s hand, and the chariot does
not obey the reins. Under the influence of these feelings I have always grieved that you,
most excellent Leo, who were worthy of a better age, have been made pontiff in this. For
the Roman court is not worthy of you and those like you, but of Satan himself, who in
truth is more the ruler in that Babylon than you are.(^246) Köstlin(Mart. Luth., vol. I. 395 sq.):"Die Schrift von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen ist ein tief-religiöser Traktat .... Sie ist
ein ruhiges, positives Zeugnis der Wahrheit, vor welcher die Waffen und Bande der Finsternis von selbst zu nichte werden müssen. Sie
zeigt uns den tiefsten Grund des christlichen Bewusstseins und Lebens in einer edlen, seligen Ruhe und Sicherheit, welche die über ihm
hingehenden Wogen und Stürme des Kampfes nicht zu erschüttern vermögen. Sie zeigt zugleich, wie fest Luther selbst auf diesem Grunde
stand, indem er eben im Höhepunkt des Kampfgedränges sie zu verfassen fähig war." It is perhaps characteristic that Janssen, who gives
one-sided extracts from the two other reformatory works of Luther, passes the tract on "Christian Liberty" in complete silence. Cardinal
Hergenröther likewise ignores it.
(^247) "Ein Statthalter ist in Abwesenheit seines Herrn ein Statthalter."