and even though you were to lose some trifling matter, the blessings of peace would make it up to you a hundredfold. Resort to war, and you may be, all of you, swallowed up, body and goods. The peasantry have drawn up twelve articles, some of these containing demands so obviously equitable, that the mere circumstance of their requiring to be made dishonours you before God and man, and realises Psalm cvii., for it pours out contempt upon princes'" (p. 169). Is this "hounding on" the princes to bloodshed ? The peasants, in most affectionate and persuasive terms, too long to repeat here, he exhorts to be patient under their sufferings, and to submit quietly to authority, and "prosecute their demands with moderation, conscience, and justice." He adds : "Dear Friends,-Satan has, as I have said, sent among you certain prophets of murder, who aim at rule in this world, and think to achieve it by your means, without heeding for the moment the spiritual and temporal dangers into which they are hurling you" (p. 172). "However just your demands may be, it befits not Christians to draw the sword, or to employ violence; you should rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded, according to the law which has been given unto you" (Cor. vi.) (p. 174). 66 But, dear friends, I entreat you humbly, and in a spirit of sincere friendship, as one who wishes you well here and hereafter, to pause before you proceed farther in this matter, to reflect most earnestly upon your real interests, and, as the fruit of your reflection, to relieve me from the painful duty of fighting by prayer against you; for though I myself am but a poor sinner, yet know that in this case reason is so clearly on my side that God would infallibly listen to my solicitations" (p. 175). And this is what the Rev. W. H. Anderdon calls "hounding on "the peasants to rebellion! After again earnestly exhorting both parties to peace and mutual forbearance, and recommending a reference of the grievances to a council to be selected out of both parties, he concludes thus: "If you will not follow this my counsel (I pray God you may), I cannot prevent you from proceeding to open hostilities, but at least I shall be guiltless of the destruction of your goods, your lives, your souls" (p. 179). And yet we are to be told that this is the man guilty of the murder of one hundred thousand peasants, by "hounding them on " to hostilities! Notwithstanding Luther's entreaties, the peasants, urged on by their leaders, committed fearful ravages on the property and persons of their oppressors, which naturally resulted in their ruthless massacre. This result seems to have raised Luther's anger, for Michelet tells us that "Luther anathematized both the one and the other, peasants and princes" (p. 371). We now come to the alleged acknowledgment that Luther undertook the personal responsibility of the massacres, and that he "put it upon the Lord God, by whose command he spoke." For this we are referred to the "Table Talk," a work, I have repeatedly observed, for which Luther was in no way responsible, being a production first issued twenty-three years after his death. The following is a translation of the passage referred to, page 276, alluding to the revolt of the peasants : "How Preachers are Murderers. Preachers are the greatest murderers (says Dr. M. Luther), for they admonish the magistracy according to their office that they should punish wicked people. I, Dr. M. Luther, have at an insurrection slain all peasants, for I have ordered them to be killed. All their blood is on my neck. But I direct it to our Lord God, who commanded me so to The speak [i.e., admonish the magistrates]. Now, who, on reading this, would not at once understand what Luther meant to convey, not that he actually ordered all these peasants to be killed, but as a Minister of the Gospel, following the dictates of that Gospel, "God, who commanded me so to speak,' he admonished magistrates to punish wicked people, and in doing so was no more physically guilty of murder than the magistrate who puts the law in force? This is so obviously the meaning of the words put into Luther's mouth, that it amounts to a fearful sin on the part of this Jesuit Lecturer to state that Luther, by his own confession, "swam Germany with the blood of one hundred thousand peasants," which result he laid on the Lord, by whose command he acted! Really one does not know how to control one's language properly in designating this bold and shameless manner of bringing false charges against one now long since departed to his rest, and incapable of defending his fair name. 1"Wie Predger Todschleger sind. Prediger sind die grösten Todschloger (sag Dr. M. Luther), denn sie vermanen die Oberkeit ires ampts, das sie böse Buben straffen soller. Ich Dr. M. Luther hab im Auffrhur alle Bauern erschlagen, denn ich hab sie heissen todschlagen; aller ir blut ist auff meinem Halss, aber ich weise es auff unsern Hernn Gott, der at mir das zu reden befohlen. Der Teufel und die Gottlosen Leute tödten sonst auch, aber dieselbigen habens nicht recht. Darumb sol man unterscheiden die privatas und publicas personas, auff das wir sehen, das die oberkeit von Rechts und Ampts wegen, böse buben verdammen und straffen möge, und Christliche regenten wissens auch. Aber andere misbrauchen ires Ampts wider das Evangelium, das wird inen nicht zu Schwieer gedein."-Edit. Eisleben, 1566, p. 276. It is not without reason that I have cautioned my readers to doubt every statement or quotation made by a Romanist until the same have been carefully verified. The "Peasant War," like other wars in other times and countries, had nothing whatever to do with the religion of the country. It was a popular revolt against constituted authority, caused by the cruel exactions and oppressions of princes, nobles, and priests. The reprisals were savage, cruel, and destructive. It was a war of class against class, in which Luther held nothing in common with either party. The result was a ruthless massacre of the weaker party, the peasants. The idea of a JESUIT-a Papist— bringing a charge of persecution as a crime against the Reformer! Rome has ever been, when within her power, a most heartless, persecuting Church, the victims being peaceable and orderly citizens, but who refused to submit to the Pope's rule, or accept Rome's innovations on the primitive Christian and Apostolic worship. Alva boasted of having slain 18,000 unoffending Protestants in the Netherlands, and the Pope applauded the act. Dominic, the ferocious Monk, with fire and sword, slaughtered thousands of innocent Protestant peasants. This monster was in consequence raised to the rank of one of Rome's so-called Saints in heaven. The massacre of St. Bartholomew and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes cost France thousands of Protestants,―her best and most orderly and industrious subjects. The massacre was commemorated by the Pope by striking off a medal illustrated by a destroying angel armed with a flaming sword. And the Inquisition has annihilated, by torture and stake, thousands on thousands of victims, whom the Church of Rome was pleased to call heretics; and yet this Jesuit writer begrudges Luther the questionable luxury of a little persecution on his own account, but of which charge he was entirely innocent. No. IX.-REFORMED AND UNREFORMED. Good sir, as you have one eye upon my follies, turn another into the register of your own.-Merry Wives of Windsor. BESIDES the direct attacks on Luther personally and on his writings, an indirect method is adopted to accomplish the same object by seeking to defame the followers of Luther and the other leaders of the Reformation. We are We are informed1 that the leading Reformers themselves have acknowledged that "since the preaching of the Gospel (which must always be understood Luther's dogma of Justification), all kinds of turpitudes and iniquities have been committed." told that "the Gospel was received readily enough, because people found it favourable to carnal liberty." We have, accordingly, vice and immorality laid (at the door of the "Reformed." All is attributed to the result of Luther's teaching of the "the New Gospel,-Justification by Faith." We have industriously reproduced the alleged acknowledgments by these leaders of the Reformation, of the depravity of the early reformed, collected from different sources; but as there is not one single reference to the originals, it is impossible to detect the accuracy, or otherwise, of the citations. Having triumphantly reproduced these statements, which we find in all similar attacks against Luther, the matter is summed up with the Scriptural truths: "Can a man gather grapes from thorns, or figs of thistles,' "A good tree cannot bring forth. evil fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit." The selection of these texts appears most appropriate to the circumstances and the occasion. As these new converts to the alleged new doctrine of "Justification 1 See The Weekly Register, August 11 and 18, 1838. This Romish paper has been foremost in its attacks on Luther. |