586 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 15380.
Melanchethon’s favorable judgment of Basil the Great. He thought Gregory of Nazianzen, the eloquent defender of the divinity of Christ during the Arian ascendency, to be of no account (‘‘ Nazianzenus est nihil.’? Bindseil, III. 152). He speaks well of Theodoret’s Commentary to Paul’s Epistles, but unreasonably depreciates Chrysostom, the golden preacher and commentator, and describes him as a great rhetorician, full of words and empty of matter ; he even absurdly compares him to Carlstadt! ‘‘ He is garrulous, and therefore pleases Erasmus, who neglects faith, and treats only of morals. I consulted him on the beautiful passage on the highpriest in Hebrews; but he twaddled about the dignity of priests, and let me stick in the mud”’ (Bindseil, III. 186; ἘΠῚ. ed. LXII. 102).
Of medieval divines Luther esteemed Nicolaus Lyra as a most useful commentator. He praises St. Bernard, who in his sermons “ excels all other doctors, even Augustin.’? He speaks highly of Peter the Lombard, “‘ the Master of Sentences,’’ and calls him a “‘ homo diligentissimus et excellentissimi ingenii,’’ although he brought in many useless questions (Bindseil, III. 151; ἘΠῚ, ed. L.XII. 114). He calls Occam, whom he studied diligently, ‘‘ summus dialecticus’’ (Bindseil, III. 138, 270). But upon the whole he hated the schoolmen and their master, ‘‘the damned heathen Aristotle,’’ although he admits him to have been ‘‘ optimus dialecticus,’’ and learned from him and his commentators the art of logical reasoning. Even Thomas Aquinas, “the Angelic Doctor,’?’ whom the Lutheran scholastics of the seventeenth century highly and justly esteemed, he denounced as a chatterer (loguacissimus), who makes the Bible bend to Aristotle (Bindseil, 111, 270, 286), and whose books are a fountain of all heresies, and destructive of the gospel (‘‘ der Brunn und Grundsuppe aller Ketzerei, Irrthums und Verleugnung des Evangeliums.”’ ἘΠῚ. ed. XXIV. 240). This is, of course, the language of prejudice and passion. — His views on Augustin are the most correct, because he knew him best, and liked him most. i
Melanchthon and (colampadius from fuller knowledge and milder temper judged more favorably and consistently of the fathers generally, and their invaluable services to Christian literature.
§ 86. Changes in the Views on the Ministry. Departure from the Episcopal Succession. Luther ordains a Deacon, and consecrates a Bishop.
The Reformers unanimously rejected the sacerdotal character of the Christian ministry (except in a spiritual sense), and hence also the idea of a literal altar and sacrifice. No priest, no sacrifice. “Priest” is an abridgment of “ presbyter,” and “presbyter” is equivalent to “elder.” It does not
1 Milton, in his discontent with the Presbyterians and zeal for independency, said, ‘‘ Presbyter is priest writ large.”’
§ 86. CHANGES IN THE VIEWS ON THE MINISTRY. 637
mean sacerdos in the New Testament, nor among the earliest ecclesiastical writers before Tertullian and Cyprian.1. Moreover, in Scripture usage “presbyter” and “bishop” are terms for one and the same office (as also in the Epistle of Clement of Rome, and the recently discovered “ Teaching of the Twelve Apostles”’).2. This fact (conceded by Jerome and Chrysostom and the best modern scholars) was made the basis for presbyterian ordination in those Lutheran and -Reformed churches which abolished episcopacy.
In the place of a graded hierarchy, the Reformers taught the parity of ministers; and in the place of a special priesthood, offering the very body and blood of Christ, a general priesthood of believers, offering the sacrifices of prayer and praise for the one sacrifice offered for all time to come. Luther derived the lay-priesthood from baptism as an anointing by the Holy Spirit and an incorporation into Christ. “A layman with the Scriptures,” he said, “is more to be believed than pope and council without the Scriptures.” #
Nevertheless, he maintained, in opposition to the democratic radicalism of Carlstadt and the fanatical spiritualism of the Zwickau prophets, the necessity of a ministry, as a matter of order and expediency ; and so far he asserted its divine origin. Every public teacher must be called of God 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.” ὅ
But what constitutes a regular call? Luther at first took
1 The exceptional designation of the Christian prophets as ‘‘ highpriests”’ (ἀρχιερεὶς), in the Didaché, ch. XIII. 3, is probably figurative. See Schaff, The Oldest Church Manual, p. 206 sq.
2 See Schaff, l.c. p. 74 sq., and 211.
8 See the passage in the Appendix to Luther’s Articles of Smalcald, quoted above on p. 517, note 2.
Comp. § 44, p. 207, and Melanchthon in his Apology of the Augsb. Conf,
arts. XIII. and XXIV, 5 Art. XIV.