206 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1530.
§ 44. Address to the German Nobility.
An den christlichen Adel deutscher Nation: von des christlichen Standes Besserung. In Walch’s ed., X. 296 sqq.; Erl. ed., X XI. 274-360; Weimar ed., VI. 404. Kostlin (in his shorter biography of Luther, p. 197 New- York ed.) gives a facsimile of the title-page of the second edition. Dr. Karl Benrath of Bonn published a separate ed., with introduction and notes, as No. 4 of the ‘Schriften des Vereins fiir Reformationsgeschichte,’’ Halle, 1886 (114 pages).
“The time for silence is gone, and the time for speaking has come.” With these words (based on Eccles. 3: 7) of the dedicatory preface to Amsdorf, Luther introduces his address “to his most Serene and Mighty Imperial Majesty, and to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, respecting a Reformation of the Christian Estate.” The preface is dated on the Eve of St. John the Baptist (June 23), 1520; the book was hastily completed July 20,! and before Aug. 18 no less than four thousand copies —an enormous number for those days—were published, and a new edition called for, besides reprints which soon appeared in Leipzig and Strassburg.
The book is a most stirring appeal to the German nobles, who, through Hutten and Sickingen, had recently offered their armed assistance to Luther. He calls upon them to take the much-needed Reformation of the Church into their own hands; not, indeed, by force of arms, but by legal ‘means, in the fear of God, and in reliance upon his strength. The bishops and clergy refused to do their duty; hence the laity must come to the front of the battle for the purity and liberty of the Church.
Luther exposes without mercy the tyranny of the Pope, whose government, he says, “agrees with the government of the apostles as well as Lucifer with Christ, hell with heaven,
1 On that date he informed Wencislaus Link: ‘‘ Editur noster libellus in Papam de reformanda ecclesia vernaculus, ad universam nobilitatem Ger-
manie, qui summe offensurus est Romam.... Vale, et ora pro me.” De Wette, I. 470.
ὃ 44. ADDRESS TO THE GERMAN NOBILITY. 207
night with day; and yet he calls himself Christ’s Vicar, and the Successor of Peter.”
The book is divided into three parts : —
1. In the first part, Luther pulls down what he calls the three walls of Jericho, which the papacy had erected in selfdefense against any reformation; namely, the exclusion of / the laity from all control, the exclusive claim to interpret/ the Scriptures, and the exclusive claim to calla Council. /
Under the first head, he brings out clearly and strongly, in - opposition to priestcraft, the fundamental Protestant principle of the general priesthood of all baptized Christians. He attacks the distinction of two estates, one spiritual, consisting of Pope, bishops, priests, and monks; and one temporal, consisting of princes, lords, artificers, and peasants. There is only one body, under Christ the Head. All Chris-, tians belong to the spiritual estate. Baptism, gospel and \ faith,—these alone make spiritual and Christian people.! | We are consecrated priests by baptism; we are a royal priesthood, kings and priests before God (1 Pet. 2: 9; Rev. 5:10). The only difference, then, between clergy and aii is one of office and function, not of estate.
Luther represents here the ministerial office as the creature of the congregation ; while at a later period, warned by democratic excesses, and the unfitness of most of the congregations of that age for a popular form of government, he laid greater stress upon the importance of the ministry as an institution of Christ. This idea of the general priesthood necessarily led to the emancipation of the laity from priestly control, and their participation in the affairs of the Church, although this has been but very imperfectly carried out in Protestant state churches. It destroyed the distinction between higher (clerical and monastic), and lower morality ; it gave sanctity to the natural relations, duties, and
1 “Was aus der Taufe gekrochen ist, das mag sich riihmen, dass es schon Priester, Bischof, und Papst geweihet sei.”