Melanchthon laid down the far-reaching principle that the Scriptures are the supreme rule of faith,
and that we must not explain the Scriptures by the Fathers, but explain and judge the Fathers by
the Scriptures. He discovered that even Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustin had often erred in their
exegesis. A little later (September, 1519), he raised the same charge against the Councils, and
maintained that a Catholic Christian could not be required to believe any thing that was not warranted
by the Scriptures. He expressed doubts about transubstantiation and the whole fabric of the mass.
His estimate of the supreme value of the Scriptures, especially of Paul, rose higher and higher, and
made him stronger and bolder in the conflict with mediaeval tradition.
Thus fortified by the learning of Melanchthon, encouraged by the patriotic zeal of Hutten
and Sickingen, goaded by the fury of his enemies, and impelled, as it were, by a preternatural
impulse, Luther attacked the papal power as the very stronghold of Satan. Without personal ill-will
against anybody, he had a burning indignation against the system, and transcended all bounds of
moderation.^235 He felt the inspiration of a prophet, and had the courage of a martyr ready to die at
any moment for his conviction.
He issued in rapid succession from July till October, 1520, his three most effective
reformatory works: the, "Address to the German Nobility," the "Babylonian Captivity of the Church,"
and the, "Freedom of a Christian Man."^236 The first two are trumpets of war, and the hardest blows
ever dealt by human pen to the system of popery; while the third is peaceful, and shines like a
rainbow above the thunderclouds. A strange contrast! Luther was the most conservative of radicals,
and the most radical of conservatives. He had all the violence of a revolutionary orator, and at the
same time the pious spirit of a contemplative mystic.
The sixteenth century was the age of practical soteriology. It had to settle the relation of
man to God, to bring the believer into direct communion with Christ, and to secure to him the
personal benefits of the gospel salvation. What was heretofore regarded as the exclusive privilege
of the priest was to become the common privilege of every Christian. To this end, it was necessary
to break down the walls which separated the clergy from the laity, and obstructed the approach to
God. This was most effectually done by Luther’s anti-papal writings. On the relation of man to
God rests the relation of man to his fellow-men; this is the sociological problem which forms one
of the great tasks of the nineteenth century.
§ 44. Address to the German Nobility.
An den christlichen Adel deutscher Nation: von des christlichen Standes Besserung. In Walch’s
ed., X. 296 sqq.; Erl. ed., XXI. 274–360; Weimar ed., VI. 404. Köstlin (in his shorter biography
of Luther, p. 197 New York ed.) gives a facsimile of the title-page of the second edition. Dr.
Karl Benrath of Bonn published a separate ed., with introduction and notes, as No. 4 of the
"Schriften des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte." Halle, 1886 (114 pages).
(^235) See the remarkable passage in his letter to Conrad Pellicanus, January or February, 1521 (De Wette, I. 555): "Recte mones modestiae
me: sentio et ipse, sed compos mei non sum; rapior nescio quo spiritu, cum nemini me male velle conscius sim: verum urgent etiam illi
furiosissime, ut Satanam non satis observem."
(^236) L. Lemme: Die drei grossen Reformationsschriften Luthers vom Jahre 1520. Gotha, 1875, 2d ed., 1884. Wace and Bucheim: First
Principles of the Reformation, London, 1883.