excellentissimi ingenii," although he brought in many useless questions (Bindseil, III. 151; Erl. ed.
LXII. 114). He calls Occam, whom he studied diligently, "summus dialecticus" (Bindseil, III. 138,
270). But upon the whole he hated the schoolmen and their master, "the damned heathen Aristotle,"
although he admits him to have been "optimus dialecticus," and learned from him and his
commentators the art of logical reasoning. Even Thomas Aquinas, "the Angelic Doctor," whom
the Lutheran scholastics of the seventeenth century highly and justly esteemed, he denounced as a
chatterer (loquacissimus), who makes the Bible bend to Aristotle (Bindseil, III. 270, 286), and
whose books are a fountain of all heresies, and destructive of the gospel ("der Brunn und Grundsuppe
aller Ketzerei, Irrthums und Verleugnung des Evangeliums." Erl. ed. XXIV. 240). This is, of course,
the language of prejudice and passion.—His views on Augustin are the most correct, because he
knew him best, and liked him most.
Melanchthon and Oecolampadius from fuller knowledge and milder temper judged more
favorably and consistently of the fathers generally, and their invaluable services to Christian
literature.
§ 86. Changes in the Views on the Ministry. Departure from the Episcopal Succession. Luther
ordains a Deacon, and consecrates a Bishop.
The Reformers unanimously rejected the sacerdotal character of the Christian ministry (except
in a spiritual sense), and hence also the idea of a literal altar and sacrifice. No priest, no sacrifice.
"Priest" is an abridgment of "presbyter,"^699 and "Presbyter" is equivalent to "elder." It does not
mean sacerdos in the New Testament, nor among the earliest ecclesiastical writers before Tertullian
and Cyprian.^700 Moreover, in Scripture usage "presbyter" and "bishop" are terms for one and the
same office (as also in the Epistle of Clement of Rome, and the recently discovered "Teaching of
the Twelve Apostles".^701 This fact (conceded by Jerome and Chrysostom and the best modern
scholars) was made the basis for presbyterian ordination in those Lutheran and Reformed churches
which abolished episcopacy.^702
In the place of a graded hierarchy, the Reformers taught the parity of ministers; and in the
place of a special priesthood, offering the very body and blood of Christ, a general priesthood of
believers, offering the sacrifices of prayer and praise for the one sacrifice offered for all time to
come. Luther derived the lay-priesthood from baptism as an anointing by the Holy Spirit and an
incorporation into Christ. "A layman with the Scriptures," he said, "is more to be believed than
pope and council without the Scriptures."^703
Nevertheless, he maintained, in opposition to the democratic radicalism of Carlstadt and
the fanatical spiritualism of the Zwickau prophets, the necessity of a ministry, as a matter of order
and expediency; and so far he asserted its divine origin. Every public teacher must be called of God
(^699) Milton, in his discontent with the Presbyterians and zeal for independency, said, "Presbyter is priest writ large."
(^700) The exceptional designation of the Christian prophets as "highpriests" (ἀρχιερει̑ς, in the Didaché, ch. XIII. 3, is probably figurative.
See Schaff, The Oldest Church Manual, p. 206 sq.
(^701) See Schaff, l.c. p. 74 sq., and 211.
(^702) See the passage in the Appendix to Luther’s Articles of Smalcald, quoted above on p. 517, note 2.
(^703) Comp. § 44, p. 207, and Melanchthon in his Apology of the Augsb. Conf., arts. XIII. and XXIV.