ECK
48
ECK
more formidable. Christ's -words, ' Tliou art Peter; feud mj' slice]),' wliicli liave always been cited in tliis ciintroversy, were brought forward. In the exposi- tion l>y Nicolas Lyraniis also, of -which Luther made tlie most use, there occurs this explanation, differing from that of the curia, of the passage in Mattlie-w, chap, xvi : ' Quia tu es Petrus, i. e. confessor vera petrce qui est Cknstus /actus ; et super hanc j)etram,quam con- fessus es, i. e. super Christum, adijicabo ecclesiam meam.' Luther labored to support tlie already -well-lvnown ex- planation of them, at variance witli that of the curia, by otlier passages which record similar commissions given to tlie apostles. Eck quoted passages from the fathers in support of his opinions, to which Lutlier op- ]iosed others from the same source. As soon as they got into these more recondite regions, Luther's supe- riority became incontestable. One of his main argu- ments was tliat the Greeks had never acknowledged the pope, and yet had not lieen pronounced heretics ; the Greek Cliurch had stood, was standing, and would stand without the pope ; it belonged to Christ as much as the Roman. Eck did not hesitate at once to declare that the Christian and the Roman Church were one ; tliat the churches of Greece and Asia had fallen away, not only from the pope, but from the Christian faith — thay were unquestionably heretics: in the whole cir- cuit of the Turkish empire, for instance, there was not one soul that could be saved, with the exception of the few wlio adhered to the pope of Itome. ' How ?' said Luther; ' would you pronounce damnation on the Avhole Greek Church, which has produced the most eminent fathers, and so many thousand saints, of whom not one had even lieard of a Eoman primate? Would Gregory of Nazianzen, would the great Basil, not be saved .' or would the pope and his satellites drive them out of heaven ?' These expressions iirove how greatly the omnipotence and exclusive validitj' of the forms of tlie Latin Churcli, and the identity with Christian- ity which she claimed, were shaken by the fact that, beyond her pale, the ancient Greek Churcli, which she bad herself acknowledged, stood in all the venerable authority of her great teachers. It was now Eck's turn to be hard pressed : he repeated that there had been many heretics in the Greek Church, and that he alluded to them, not to the fathers — a miserable eva- sion, which did not in the least touch the assertion of his adversary. Ecli felt this, and hastened back to the domain of the Latin Church. He particularly in- sisted that Luther's opinion^that the primacy of liome was of human institution, and not of divine right — ■was an error of the poor brethren of Lyons, of A\'ick- liffe and Huss ; but had been condemned by the popes, and especially liy the general councils wherein dwelt the spirit of God, and recently at that of Constance. This new fact was as indisputable as the former. Eck was not satisfied witli Luther's declaration that lie had nothing to do with the Bohemians, nay, that he con- demned their schism ; and tliat he would not be an- swered out of the collectanea of inquisitors, but out of tlie Scrijitures. The question had now arrived at its most critical and inijiortant moment. Did Luther ac- knowledge the direct influence of the divine Spirit over the Latin Church, and the binding force of the decrees of her councils, or did he not? Did he in- •wardly adhere to licr, or did he not? We must recol- lect tliat we are hcMC not far from the frontier of Bo- hemia ; in a land which, in consequence of the anathe- ma jironounccd in Constance, had experienced all the horrors of a long and desolating war, and liad ]ilaced its glory in tlie resistance it had offered to the Huss- ites: at a university founded in O])])osition to the siiii- it and doctrine of John Huss: in the face of princes, lords, and coniinoners, whose fathers had fallen in this struggle; it was said that delegates from the Bohemi- ans, who Iiad anticipated the turn which this conflict must t;ike, were also jiresent. , Luther s;iw the danger of his position. Should he really reject the prevailing