from a wholesome school of discipline for young nations, had become a fearful and intolerable
tyranny over the intellect and conscience of men.
Luther developed his theology before the eyes of the public; while Calvin, at a later period,
appeared fully matured, like Minerva from the head of Jupiter. "I am one of those," he says, "among
whom St. Augustin classed himself, who have gradually advanced by writing and teaching; not of
those who at a single bound spring to perfection out of nothing.
He called the Pope the most holy and the most hellish father of Christendom. He began in
1517 as a devout papist and monk, with full faith in the Roman Church and its divinely appointed
head, protesting merely against certain abuses; in 1519, at the Leipzig disputation, he denied the
divine right, and shortly afterwards also the human right, of the papacy; a year later he became
fully convinced that the papacy was that antichristian power predicted in the Scriptures, and must
be renounced at the risk of a man’s salvation.
There is no doubt that in all these stages he was equally sincere, earnest, and conscientious.
Luther adhered to the position taken in the act of Dec. 10, 1520, with unchanging firmness.
He never regretted it for a moment. He had burned the ship behind him; he could not, and he would
not, return. To the end of his life he regarded and treated the Pope of Rome in his official capacity
as the very Antichrist, and expected that he soon would be destroyed by spiritual force at the second
coming of Christ. At Schmalkalden in 1537 he prayed that God might fill all Protestants with hatred
of the Pope. One of his last and most violent books is directed "Against the Papacy at Rome, founded
by the Devil." Wittenberg, 1545.^288 He calls Paul III. the "Most hellish Father," and addresses him
as "Your Hellishness." instead of "Your Holiness." He promises at the close to do still better in
another book, and prays that in case of his death, God may raise another one "a thousandfold more
severe; for the devilish papacy is the last evil on earth, and the worst which all the devils with all
their power could contrive. God help us. Amen." Thus he wrote, not under the inspiration of liquor
or madness, as Roman historians have suggested, but in sober earnest. His dying words, as reported
by Ratzeburger, his physician, were a prediction of the approaching death of the papacy: —
"Pestis eram vivus, moriens tua mors ero Papa."
From the standpoint of his age, Luther regarded the Pope and the Turk as "the two
arch-enemies of Christ and his Church," and embodied this view in a hymn which begins, —
"Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort
Und steur’ des Papst’s und Türken Mord."^289
This line, like the famous eightieth question of the Heidelberg Catechism which denounces
the popish mass as an "accursed idolatry," gave much trouble in mixed communities, and in some
it was forbidden by Roman-Catholic magistrates. Modern German hymn-books wisely substitute
"all enemies," or "enemies of Christ," for the Pope and the Turk.(^288) Wider das Papstthum zu Rom, tom Teufel gestiftet (in the Erl. ed., XXVI. 108-228). A rude wood-cut on the title-page represents
the Pope with long donkey-ears going into the jaws of hell, while demons are punching and jeering at him. Luther calls the Pope (p. 228)
"Papstesel mit langen Eselsohren und verdammtem Lügenmaul." The book was provoked by two most presumptuous letters of Pope Paul
III. to the Emperor Charles V., rebuking him for giving rest to the Protestants at the Diet of Speier, 1544, till the meeting of a general
council, and reminding him of the terrible end of those who dare to violate the priestly prerogatives. King Ferdinand, the Emperor’s
brother, read the book through, and remarked, "Wenn die bösen Worte heraus wären, so hätte der Luther nicht übel geschrieben." But
not a few sincere friends of Luther thought at the time that he did more harm than good to his own cause by this book.
(^289) It appeared in Klug’s Gesangbuch, Wittenberg, 1543, under the title: "Ein Kinderlied zu singen, wider die zween Ertzfeinde Christi
und seiner heiligen Kirchen, den Papst und Türken."