no man did before or since, three fundamental books of religion,—the Bible, a hymn-book, and a
catechism. He forced even his German enemies to imitate his language in poetry and prose. So
strong is the hold which his Bible version has upon the church of his name, that it is next to
impossible to change and adapt it to modern learning and taste, although he himself kept revising
and improving it as long as he lived.^987
Luther was the German of the Germans, and the most vigorous type of the faults as well as
the virtues of his nation.^988 He is the apostle of Protestant Germany, fully as much as Boniface is
the apostle of Roman Catholic Germany, and surpasses him vastly in genius and learning. Boniface,
though an Anglo-Saxon by birth, was more a Roman than a German; while in Luther the Christian
and the German were one, and joined in opposition to papal Rome. All schools of Lutheran divines
appeal to his authority: the extreme orthodox, who out-Luther Luther in devotion to the letter; the
moderate or middle party, who adhere only to the substance of his teaching; and the rationalists,
who reject his creed, but regard him as the standard-bearer of the freedom of private judgment and
dissent from all authority.^989
His real strength lies in his German writings, which created the modern High-German
book-language, and went right to the heart of the people. His greatest production is a translation,—the
German Bible. Italians, Spaniards, and Frenchmen, who knew him only from his Latin books,
received a very feeble idea of his power, and could not understand the secret of his influence.^990
The contemptuous judgments of Pope Leo, Cardinal Cajetan, Aleander, and Emperor Charles, echo
the sentiments of their nations, and re-appear again and again among modern writers of the Latin
races and the Romish faith.
Nevertheless, Martin Luther’s influence extends far beyond the limits of his native land.
He belongs to the church and the world.
Luther has written his own biography, as well as the early history of the German Reformation,
in his numerous letters, without a thought of their publication. He lays himself open before the
world without reservation. He was the frankest and most outspoken of men, and swayed by the
impulse of the moment, without regard to logical consistency or fear of consequences. His faults
as well as his virtues lay on the surface of his German works. He infused into them his intense
personality to a degree which hardly finds a parallel except in the Epistles of the Apostle Paul.
He knew himself very well. A high sense of his calling and a deep sense of personal
unworthiness are inseparably combined in his self-estimate. He was conscious of his prophetic and
apostolic mission in republishing the primitive gospel for the German people; and yet he wrote to
his wife not to be concerned about him, for God could make a dozen Luthers at any time. In his
last will and testament (Jan. 6, 1542) he calls himself "a man well known in heaven, on earth, and
(^987) The Probebibel, so-called, of 1883, though prepared by a company of able scholars appointed by various German States, is a timidly
conservative revision, does not touch the Erasmian text, and allows innumerable inaccuracies to stand from respect to Luther’s memory;
and yet even this revision revises too much for the Lutherans of strict orthodoxy. His popularity is a hinderance to progress.
(^988) See H. v. Treitschke’s eloquent address, Luther und die deutsche Nation, Berlin, 1883 (29 pages).
(^989) Professor Ad. Harnack (Martin Luther, Giessen, 1883, p. 4) well says: Fast jede Partei unter uns hat ihren Luther und meint den
wahren zu haben. Die Verehrung für Luther vereinigt mehr als die Hälfte unserer Nation und die Auffassung Luther’s trennt sie. Von
Luther’s Namen lässt so leicht kein Deutscher. Ein unvergleichlicher Mann ist er Allen, ob man ihm nun aufpasst, um ihn anzugreifen,
oder ob man ihn rühmt und hoch preist." The Germans, if we may say so, worship Luther, Frederick the Great, Goethe, and Bismarck.
Of these, Luther is most worthy, and was least desirous, of praise.
(^990) Hallam also, ignoring Luther’s German writings, calls his polemical books "bellowing in bad Latin," " scandalous," and " disgusting."
(Literature of Europe in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, II. 306, N. Y. ed.)