The claims of the Roman Church rest on a broader and more solid base than the papacy,
which is merely the form of her government. The papal hierarchy was often as corrupt as the Jewish
hierarchy, and some popes were as wicked as Caiaphas;^698 but this fact cannot destroy the claims
nor invalidate the ordinances of the Roman Church, which from the days of the apostles down to
the Reformation has been identified with the fortunes of Western Christendom, and which remains
to this day the largest visible church in the world. To deny her church character is to stultify history,
and to nullify the promise of Christ. (Matt. 16:18; 28:20.)
NOTES.
luther’s views on the church fathers.
Walch, XXII. 2050–2065. Erlangen ed. LXII. 97 sqq. (Tischreden). Bindseil: Mart. Lutheri Colloquia (1863), 3 vols.
In this connection it may be interesting to collect from his writings and Table Talk some
of Luther’s characteristic judgments of the church fathers whose works began to be more generally
known and studied through the editions of Erasmus.
Luther had no idea of a golden age of virgin purity of the church. He knew that even among
the apostles there was a Judas, and that errors and corruptions crept into the Galatian, Corinthian,
and other congregations, as is manifest from the censures, warnings, and exhortations of the Epistles
of the New Testament. Much less could he expect perfection in any post-apostolic age. His view
of the absolute supremacy of the Word of God over all the words of men, even the best and holiest,
led him to a critical and discriminating estimate of the fathers and schoolmen. Besides, he felt the
difference between the patristic and the Protestant theology. The Continental Reformers generally
thought much less of the fathers than the Anglican divines.
"The fathers," says Luther, "have written many things that are pious and useful (multa pia
et salutaria), but they must be read with discrimination, and judged by the Scriptures." "The dear
fathers lived better than they wrote; we write better than we live." (Melius vixerunt quam scripserunt:
nos Deo juvante melius scribimus quam vivimus. Bindseil, l.c. III. 140; Erl. ed., LXII. 103.) He
placed their writings far below the Scriptures; and the more he progressed in the study of both, the
more he was impressed with the difference (Erl. ed., LXII. 107). To reform the church by the fathers
is impossible; it can only be done by the Word of God (XXV. 231). They were poor interpreters,
in part on account of their ignorance of Hebrew and Greek (XXII. 185). All the fathers have erred
in the faith. Nevertheless, they are to be held in veneration for their testimony to the Christian faith
(propter testimonium fidei omnes sunt venerandi. Erl. ed. LXII. 98).
Of all the fathers he learned most from Augustin. For him he had the profoundest respect,
and him he quotes more frequently than all others combined. He regards him as one of the four
pillars of the church (the claims of Ambrose, Jerome, and Gregory, he disputed), as the best
commentator, and the patron of theologians. "Latina nostra ecclesia nullum habuit praestantiorem
doctorem quam Augustinum" (Bindseil, I. 456). "He pleased and pleases me better than all other
doctors; he was a great teacher, and worthy of all praise" (III. 147). The Pelagians stirred him up
to his best books, in which he treats of free-will, faith, and original sin. He first distinguished it
from actual transgression. He is the only one among the fathers who had a worthy view of matrimony.
The papists pervert his famous word: "I would not believe the gospel if the Catholic Church did
Church Antichrist, but only the Pope, who is no more the Roman Church than the Moderator of the General Assembly is the General
Assembly, or the President of the United States is the American people, or the Czar of Russia is Russia. The government is only one factor
in the life of a nation or a church.(^698) Dante locates them in the Inferno; and Möhler says, "Hell has swallowed them up."