through the Church, or prove his extraordinary call by miracles. And so the Augsburg Confession
declares that "no man shall publicly teach in the church, or administer the sacraments, without a
regular call."^704
But what constitutes a regular call? Luther at first took the ground of congregational
independency in his writings to the Bohemian Brethren (1523), and advocated the right of a Christian
congregation to call, to elect, and to depose its own minister.^705 He meant, of course, a congregation
of true believers, not a mixed multitude of nominal professors. In cases of necessity, which knows
no law, he would allow any one who has the gift, to pray and sing, to teach and preach; and refers
to the congregation of Corinth, and to Stephen, Philip, and Apollos, who preached without a
commission from the apostles. In a conflagration everybody runs to lend a helping hand, to save
the town. But, in ordinary cases, no one should be a teacher unless called and elected by the
congregation. Even Paul did not elect elders without the concurrence of the people. The bishops
of our days are no bishops, but idols. They neglect preaching, their chief duty, leaving it to chaplains
and monks: they confirm and consecrate bells, altars, and churches, which is a self-invented business,
neither Christian nor episcopal. They are baby-bishops.^706
But congregations of pure Christians, capable of self-government, could not be found in
Germany at that time, and are impossible in state churches where churchmanship and citizenship
coincide. Luther abandoned this democratic idea after the Peasants’ War, and called on the arm of
the govern-ment for protection against the excesses of the popular will.
In the first years of the Reformation the congregations were supplied by Romish ex-priests
and monks. But who was to ordain the new preachers educated at Wittenberg? The bishops of
Saxony (Naumburg-Zeiz, Meissen, and Merseburg) remained loyal to their master in Rome; and
there was no other ordaining power according to law. Luther might have derived the succession
from two bishops of Prussia,—Georg von Polenz, bishop of Samland, and Erhard von Queis, bishop
of Pomesania,—who accepted the Reformation, and afterwards surrendered their episcopal rights
to Duke Albrecht as the summus episcopus (1525).^707 But he did not wish to go outside of Saxony,
and hated the whole hierarchy of pope and bishop as a human invention and spiritual tyranny. He
congratulated the bishop of Samland that he, as by a miracle of grace, had been delivered from the
mouth of Satan; while all other bishops raged like madmen against the reviving gospel, although
he hoped that there were some timid Nicodemuses among them.^708
With these views, and the conviction of his own divine authority to reform the church, he
felt no reluctance to take the episcopal prerogative into his hands. He acted to the end of his life as
(^704) Art. XIV.
(^705) In the address De instituendis ministris, to the magistrate and people of Prag, and in his tract "Dass eine christliche Versammlung
oder Gemeinde Recht und Macht habe, alle Lehrer zu urtheilen und Lehrer zu berufen, ein- und abzusetzen." (Erl. ed., XXII. 140 sqq.;
and Walch, X. 1795 sqq.)
(^706) "Es sind verkehrt, verblendete Larven, und rechte Kinderbischöfe." The last word of his German tract to the Bohemians. Erl. ed.,
XXII. 151.
(^707) The conversion and attempted reformation of Archbishop Herrmann of Cologne occurred much later, in 1543.
(^708) In the preface to his commentary on Deuteronomy, which he dedicated to the bishop of Samland, 1525 (Erl. ed. of Opera Latina,
XIII. 6): "Non enim te laudamus, sed insigne illud miraculum gratiae Dei extollimus, quam in te valere, regnare et triumphare videmus
et audimus cum gaudio ut ... te unicum et solum inter omnes episcopi orbis elegerit Dominus et liberaverit ex ore Satanae quod dilatavit
sicut infernum et devorat omnes. Nihil enim videmus in ceteris episcopis (quanquam esse inter eos sperem aliquot Nicodemos) nisi quod
subversis caesare et regibus ac principibus fremunt et insaniunt contra resurgens vel potius oriens evangelion, ut denuo impleant illud
Psalmi secundi," etc. Comp. his letter to Spalatin, Feb. 1, 1524, and to Briesmann, July 4, 1524, in De Wette, II. 474 and 525 sqq.