§ 109. LAST ATTACK ON THE SACRAMENTARIANS. 657
exposition of the Christian faith, addressed to the king of France. “If such godless heathen,” he says, “88 Socrates, Aristides, yea, even the horrible Numa who introduced all kinds of idolatry in Rome! (as St. Augustin writes), were saved, there is no need of God, Christ, gospel, Scriptures, baptism, sacrament, or Christian faith.” He thinks that Zwingli either played the hypocrite when he professed so many Christian articles at Marburg, or fell away, and has become worse than a heathen, and ten times worse than he Was as a papist.
This attitude Luther retained to the end. It is difficult to say whom he hated most, the papists or the Sacramentarians. On the subject of the real presence he was much farther removed from the latter. He remarks once that he would rather drink blood alone with the papists than wine alone with the Zwinglians. A few days before his death, he wrote to his friend, Pastor Probst in Bremen: “ Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the Sacramentarians, nor standeth in the way of the Zwinglians, nor sitteth in the seat of the Zurichers.”? Thus he turned the blessing of the first Psalm into a curse, in accordance with his growing habit of cursing the pope and the devil when praying to God. He repeatedly speaks of this habit, especially in reciting the Lord’s Prayer, and justifies it as a part of his piety.
1 “ Solche gottlose Heiden, Socrates, Aristides, ja der grduliche Numa, der zu Rom alle Abgétterei erst gestiftet.’’
2 De Wette, V. 778. The German in Walch, XVII. 2633. It should be remembered that in this letter, dated Jan. 17, 1546, he describes himself as “* senex, decrepitus, piger, fessus, frigidus, monoculus,”’ and * infelicissimus omnium hominum ᾽ἢ
8 In a book of March, 1531, against an anonymous layman of Dresden, who charged him with stirring up the Germans to open rebellion against the emperor, he defends this pious cursing as the necessary negative supplement to the positive petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. ‘‘ Ich kann nicht beten,’’ he says, ** ich muss dabei fluchen. Sollich sagen: ‘geheiligt werde dein Name,’ muss ich dabei sagen: “ Verflucht, verdammt, geschdndet mtisse werden der Papisten Namen, und aller, die deinen Namen listern.’? Soll ich sayen: * Dein Reich komme,’ 80 muss ich dabei sagen : ‘ Verflucht, verdammt, versidrt
658 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1530.
It is befitting that with this last word against the Sacramentarians should coincide in time and spirit his last and most violent attack upon the divine gift of reason, which he had himself so often and so effectually used as his best weapon, next to the Word of God. On Jan. 17, 1546, he ascended the pulpit of Wittenberg for the last time, and denounced reason as “the damned whore of the Devil.” The fanatics and Sacramentarians boast of it when they ask: “ How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Hear ye the Son of God who says: “ This is my body,” and crush the serpent beneath your feet.! ᾿
Six days later Luther left the city of his public labors for the city of his birth, and died in peace at Eisleben, Feb. 18, 1546, holding fast to his faith,and commending his soul to his God and Redeemer.
miisse werden das Papstthum sammé allen Reichen auf Erden, die deinem Reiche zuwider sind. Soll ich sagen: ‘ Dein Wille geschehe,’ so muss ich dabei sagen: ‘ Verflucht, verdammt, geschdndet und zu nichte miissen werden alle Gedanken und Anschlage der Papisten und aller die wider deinen Willen und Rath streben.’ Wahrlich, so bete ich alle Tage miindlich, und mit dem Herzen ohne Unterlass, und mit mir alle, die an Christum glaiuben, und fiihle auch wohl, dass es erhért wird. Denn man muss Gottes Wunder sehen, wie er diesen schrecklichen Reichstag [the Diet of Augsburg, 1530], und das unmiissliche Drduen und Wiithen der Papisten zu nichte macht, und auch ferner sie griindlich zu nichte machen wird. Dennoch behalte ich ein gut, freundlich, friedlich und christlich Herz gegen jedermann ; das wissen auch meine gréssten Feinde.” (Wider den Meuchler zu Dresden, Walsh, XVI. 2085; Erl. ed. XXV. 108.) Seven years later (1538) he made a similar statement in a tract on the Pope's program of a Reformation : ‘‘ Man soll nicht fluchen (das ist wahr) ; aber beten muss man, dass Gottes Name geheiliget und geehrt werde, des Papsts Name geschdndet und verflucht werde, sammt seinem Gott, dem Teufel, dass Goties Reich komme, des Antichrists Reich zu Grunde gehe. Solchen paternosterlichen Fluch mag man wohl beten, und sollihn jeder Christ beten, weil die letzten Erzbosewichte an Ende der Welt, Papst, Cardinal, und Bischof, so schdndlich, baslieh, muthwillig unsern lieben Herrn und Gott lastern und dazu spotten.”? Er. ed. XXV. 151. When once asked whether we may curse in praying, Luther replied: ‘‘ Yes; for when I pray, ‘Hallowed be thy name,’ I curse Erasmus and all heretics who blaspheme God.’ Tischreden, vol. LIX. 22. In Marburg, at the dinner-table, he added after that petition, audibly, with a sharp voice, and closing his hands more tightly, ‘‘ Und dass unser Name jur tausend Teufel verdammt werde.”? Baum, Capito u. Butzer, p. 461. 1 See above, ὃ 9, p. 81 sq. Ké6stlin, Luthers Theologie, 11. 226, 290.