This attitude Luther retained to the end. It is difficult to say whom he hated most, the papists
or the Sacramentarians. On the subject of the real presence he was much farther removed from the
latter. He remarks once that he would rather drink blood alone with the papists than wine alone
with the Zwinglians. A few days before his death, he wrote to his friend, Pastor Probst in Bremen:
"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the Sacramentarians, nor standeth in the way
of the Zwinglians, nor sitteth in the seat of the Zurichers."^891 Thus he turned the blessing of the
first Psalm into a curse, in accordance with his growing habit of cursing the pope and the devil
when praying to God. He repeatedly speaks of this habit, especially in reciting the Lord’s Prayer,
and justifies it as a part of his piety.^892
It is befitting that with this last word against the Sacramentarians should coincide in time
and spirit his last and most violent attack upon the divine gift of reason, which he had himself so
often and so effectually used as his best weapon, next to the Word of God. On Jan. 17, 1546, he
ascended the pulpit of Wittenberg for the last time, and denounced reason as the damned whore of
the Devil." The fanatics and Sacramentarians boast of it when they ask: "How can this man give
us his flesh to eat?" Hear ye the Son of God who says: "This is my body," and crush the serpent
beneath your feet.^893
Six days later Luther left the city of his public labors for the city of his birth, and died in
peace at Eisleben, Feb. 18. 1546, holding fast to his faith, and commending his soul to his God and
Redeemer.
In view of these last utterances we must, reluctantly, refuse credit to the story that Luther
before his death remarked to Melanchthon: "Dear Philip, I confess that the matter of the Lord’s
Supper has been overdone;"^894 and that, on being asked to correct the evil, and to restore peace to
the church, he replied: "I often thought of it; but then people might lose confidence in my whole
doctrine. I leave the matter in the hands of the Lord. Do what you can after my death."^895
(^891) De Wette, V. 778. The German in Walch, XVII. 2633. It should be remembered that in this letter, dated Jan. 17, 1546, he describes
himself as "senex, decrepitus, piger, fessus, frigidus, monoculus," and "infelicissimus omnium hominum"
(^892) In a book of March, 1531, against an anonymous layman of Dresden, who charged him with stirring up the Germans to open rebellion
against the emperor, he defends this pious cursing as the necessary negative supplement to the positive petitions of the Lord’s Prayer."Ich
kann nicht beten," he says, "ich muss dabei fluchen. Soll ich sagen: ’geheiligt werde dein Name,’ muss ich. dabei sagen: ’Verflucht,
verdammt, geschändet müsse werden der Papisten Namen, und aller, die deinen Namen lästern.’ Soll ich sagen: ’Dein Reich komme,’ so
muss ich dabei sagen:’ Verflucht, verdammt, verstört müsse werden das Papstthum sammt allen Reichen auf Erden, die deinem Reiche
zuwider sind. Soll ich sagen: ’Dein Wille geschehe,’ so muss ich dabei sagen: ’Verflucht, verdammt, geschändet und zu nichte müssen
werden alle Gedanken und Anschläge der Papisten und aller die wider deinen Willen und Rath streben.’ Wahrlich, so bete ich alle Tage
mündlich, und mit dem Herzen ohne Unterlass, und mit mir alle, die an Christum gläuben, und fühle auch wohl, dass es erhört wird.
Denn man mussGottes Wunder sehen, wie er diesen schrecklichen Reichstag [the Diet of Augsburg, 1530],und das unmässliche Dräuen
und Wüthen der Papisten zu nichte macht, und auch ferner sie gründlich zu nichte machen wird. Dennoch behalte ich ein gut, freundlich,
friedlich und christlich Herz gegen jedermann; das wissen auch meine grössten Feinde." (Wider den Meuchler zu Dresden, Walsh, XVI.
2085; Erl. ed. XXV. 108.) Seven years later (1538) he made a similar statement in a tract on the Pope’s program of a Reformation: "Man
soll nicht fluchen (das ist wahr); aber beten muss man, dass Gottes Name geheiliget und geehrt werde, des Papsts Name geschädet und
verflucht werde, sammt seinem Gott, dem Teufel, dass Gottes Reich komme, des Antichrists Reich zu Grunde gehe. Solchen paternosterlichen
Fluch mag man wohl beten, und soll ihn jeder Christ beten, weil die letzten Erzbösewichte am Ende der Welt, Papst, Cardinal, und Bischof
so schändlich, böslich, muthwillig unsern lieben Herrn und Gott lästern und dazu spotten." Erl. ed. XXV. 151. When once asked whether
we may curse in praying, Luther replied: "Yes; for when I pray, ’Hallowed be thy name,’ I curse Erasmus and all heretics who blaspheme
God."Tischreden, vol. LIX. 22. In Marburg, at the dinner-table, he added after that petition, audibly, with a sharp voice, and closing his
hands more tightly, "Und dass unser Name für tausend Teufel verdammt werde." Baum, Capito u. Butzer, p. 461.
(^893) See above, § 9, p. 31 sq. Köstlin, Luthers Theologie, II. 226, 290.
(^894) "Der Sache vom Abendmahl ist viel zu viel gethan."
(^895) Hardenberg, a Reformed minister at Bremen ((I. 1574), reported such a conversation as coming from the lips of his friend Melanchthon;
but Melanchthon nowhere alludes to it. Stähelin (John Calvin, I. 228 sq.) accepts, Köstlin (M. L., II. 627) rejects the report, as resting on
some misunderstanding. So also C. Bertheau in the article "Hardenberg" in Herzog2, V. 596 sq. Comp. Diestelmann, Die letzte Unterredung