the Sacramentarians.^883 These provocations and vexations, in connection with sickness and old age,
combined to increase his irritability, and to sour his temper. They must be taken into account for
all understanding of his last document on the eucharist. It is the severest of all, and forms a parallel
to his last work against the papacy, of the same year, which surpasses in violence all he ever wrote
against the Romish Antichrist.^884
The "Short Confession" contains no argument, but the strongest possible reaffirmation of
his faith in the real pres-ence, and a declaration of his total and final separation from the
Sacramentarians and their doctrine, with some concluding remarks on the elevation of the sacrament.
Standing on the brink of the grave, and in view of the judgment-seat, he solemnly condemns all
enemies of the sacraments wherever they are.^885 "Much rather," he says, "would I be torn to pieces,
and burnt a hundred times, than be of one mind and will with Stenkefeld [Schwenkfeld], Zwingel,
Carlstadt, Oecolampad, and all the rest of the Schwärmer, or tolerate their doctrine." He overwhelms
them with terms of opprobrium, and coins new ones which cannot be translated into decent English.
He calls them heretics, hypocrites, liars, blasphemers, soul-murderers, sinners unto death, bedeviled
all over.^886 He ceased to pray for them, and left them to their fate. At one time he had expressed
some regard for Oecolampadius,^887 and even for Zwingli, and sincere grief at his tragic death.^888
But in this last book he repeatedly refers to his death as a terrible judgment of God, and doubts
whether he was saved.^889 He was horrified at Zwingli’s belief in the salvation of the pious heathen,
which he learned from his last exposition of the Christian faith, addressed to the king of France.
"If such godless heathen," he says, "as Socrates, Aristides, yea, even the horrible Numa who
introduced all kinds of idolatry in Rome^890 (as St. Augustin writes), were saved, there is no need
of God, Christ, gospel, Scriptures, baptism, sacrament, or Christian faith." He thinks that Zwingli
either played the hypocrite when he professed so many Christian articles at Marburg, or fell away,
and has become worse than a heathen, and ten times worse than he was as a papist.
(^883) "Summa," he wrote to Chancellor Brück, who sent him the program, and Amsdorf’s censure, "das Buch ist den Schwärmern nicht
allein leidlich, sondern auch tröstlich, vielmehr für ihre Lehre als für unsere; ... und ist alles zu lang und gross Gewäsche, dass ich das
Klappermaul, den Butzer, hier wohl spüre." De Wette, V. 709; "Corp. Reform." V. 113, 461.
(^884) Comp. above, p. 251. Melanchthon called the "Short Confession" "the most atrocious book of Luther " (atrocissimum Lutheri
scriptum, in quo bellumπερὶ δείπνου κυριακου̑instaurat). Letter to Bullinger, Aug. 30, 1544, in "Corp. Ref." v. 475. He agreed with the
judgment of Calvin, who wrote to him, June 28, 1545 "I confess that we all owe the greatest thanks to Luther, and I should cheerfully
concede to him the highest authority, if he only knew how to control himself. Good God! what jubilee we prepare for the Papists, and
what sad example do we set to posterity!"
(^885) "Denn ich," he says after a few contemptuous words about Schwenk-feld, "als der ich nu auf der Gruben gehe, will diess Zeugniss
und diesen Ruhm mit mir für meins lieben Herrn und Heilands Jesu Christi Richtstuhl bringen, dass ich die Schwärmer und
Sacramentsfeinde, Carlstadt, Zwingel, Oecolampad, Stenkefeld und ihre Jünger zu Zürch [Zürich], und wo sie sind, mit ganzem Ernst
verdampt und gemieden habe, nach seinem Befehl Tit. 3:10, Einen Ketzer sollt du meiden."
(^886) He ascribes to them indiscriminately "ein eingeteufelt, durchteufelt, überteufelt, lästerlich Herz und Lügenmaul" (l.c., p. 404).
(^887) He wrote in 1527: "Dem Oecolampad hat Gott viel Gaben geschenkt für [vor]vielen andern, und mir ja herzlich für den Mann leid
ist." Erl. ed. XXX. 34.
(^888) In an answer to Bullinger, Zwingli’s successor, dated May 14, 1538 (De Wette, V. 112): "Libere enim dicam: Zwinglium, postquam
Marpurgi mihi visus et auditus est, virum optimum esse judicavi, sicut et Oecolampadium, ita ut eorum casis me paene exanimaverit ...
non quod invideam honori Zwinglii, de cuius morte tantum dolorem concepi," etc.
(^889) He had expressed the same doubt twelve years before, but in a milder tone, in a letter to Duke Albrecht of Prussia, April, 1532 (De
Wette, IV. 352 sq.): "Sind sie" [Zwingli and his followers who fell on the battle-field at Cappel] "selig worden, wie dasselb Gott nicht
unmöglich ist, einen Menschen in seinem letzten Ende, in einem Augenblick, zu bekehren, das gönnen und wünschen wir ihnen von Grund
unsers Herzens: aber Märtyrer zu machen, da gehört mehr zu, denn schlecht selig werden." In the Short Confession (p. 411) he seems
to count Zwingli and Oecolampadius among "the Devil’s martyrs."
(^890) "Solche gottlose Heiden, Socrates, Aristides, ja der gräuliche Numa, der zu Rom alle Abgötterei erst gestiftet."