Works of Martin Luther Part 25

[Sidenote: The Unction and Faith]

If such prayer were made, even to-day, over a sick man--that is, prayer made in full faith by older, grave and saintly men--it is beyond all doubt that we could heal as many sick as we would. For what could not faith do? But we neglect this faith, which the authority of the Apostle demands above all else. By presbyters--that is, men preeminent by reason of their age and their faith--we understand the common herd of priests. Moreover, we turn the daily or voluntary unction into an extreme unction, and finally, we not only do not effect the result promised by the Apostle, namely, the healing of the sick, but we make it of none effect by striving after the very opposite. And yet we boast that our sacrament, nay, our figment, is established and proved by this saying of the Apostle, which is diametrically opposed to it. What theologians we are! Now I do not condemn this our sacrament of extreme unction, but I firmly deny that it is what the Apostle James prescribes; for his unction agrees with ours neither in form, use, power nor purpose. Nevertheless we shall number it among those sacraments which we have inst.i.tuted, such as the blessing and sprinkling of salt and holy water[193]. For we cannot deny that every creature is sanctified by the word and by prayer, as the Apostle Paul teaches us [1 Tim. 4:4 f.]. We do not deny, therefore, that forgiveness of sins and peace are granted through extreme unction; not because it is a sacrament divinely inst.i.tuted, but because he who receives it believes that these blessings are granted to him. For the faith of the recipient does not err, however much the minister may err. For one who baptises or absolves in jest[194], that is, does not absolve so far as the minister is concerned, does yet truly absolve and baptise if the person he baptises or absolves believe. How much more will one who administers extreme unction confer peace, even though he does not really confer peace, so far as his ministry is concerned, since there is no sacrament there. The faith of the one anointed receives even that which the minister either could not or did not intend to give; it is sufficient for him to hear and believe the Word. For whatever we believe we shall receive, that we do really receive, it matters not what the minister may do or not do, or whether he dissemble or jest.

The Saying of Christ stands fast,--"All things are possible to him that believeth," [Mark 9:23] and, "Be it unto thee even as thou hast believed." [Matt. 8:13] But in treating the sacraments our sophists say nothing at all of this faith, but only babble with all their might of the virtues of the sacraments themselves--"ever learning, and never attaining to the knowledge of the truth." [2 Tim. 3:7]

Still it was a good thing that this unction was made extreme unction, or, thanks to that, it has been disturbed and subjected least of all the sacraments by tyranny and greed. This one last mercy, forsooth, has been let to the dying,--they may freely be anointed, even without confession and communion. If it had remained a practice of daily occurrence, especially if it had conferred health on the sick, even without taking away sins, how many worlds would not the pontiffs have under their control to-day? For through the one sacrament of penance and through the power of the keys, as well as through the sacrament of ordination, they have become such mighty emperors and princes. But now it is a fortunate thing that they despise the prayer of faith, and therefore do not heal any sick, and that they have made or themselves, out of an ancient ceremony, a brand-new sacrament.

Let this suffice now for these four sacraments. I know how it will displease those who believe that the number and use of the sacraments are to be learned not from the sacred Scriptures, but from the Roman See. As though the Roman See had given those sacraments and had not rather got them from the lecture halls of the universities, to which it is unquestionably indebted or whatever it has. The papal despotism would not have attained its present position, had it not taken over so many things from the universities. For there was scarce another of the celebrated bishoprics that had so few learned pontiffs; only in violence, intrigue, and superst.i.tion has it hitherto surpa.s.sed the rest. For the men who occupied the Roman See a thousand years ago differ so vastly from those who have since come into power, that one is compelled to refuse the name of Roman pontiff either to the former or to the latter.

[Sidenote: Other Possible Sacraments]

There are yet a few other things it might seem possible to regard as sacraments; namely, all those to which a divine promise has been given, such as prayer, the Word, and the cross. Christ promised, in many places, that those who pray should be heard; especially in Luke xi, where He invites us in many parables to pray [Luke 11:5 ff.]. Of the Word He says: "Blessed are they that hear the word of G.o.d, and keep it." [Luke 11:28] And who will tell how often He promises aid and glory to such as are afflicted, suffer, and are cast down? Nay, who will recount all the promises of G.o.d? The whole Scripture is concerned with provoking us to faith; now driving us with precepts and threats, now drawing us with promises and consolations. Indeed, whatever things are written are either precepts or promises; the precepts humble the proud with their demands, the promises exalt the humble with their forgiveness.

[Sidenote: Baptism and Bread the Only Sufficient Sacraments]

Nevertheless, it has seemed best to restrict the name of sacrament to such promises as have signs attached to them. The remainder, not being bound to signs, are bare promises. Hence there are, strictly speaking, but two sacraments in the Church of G.o.d--baptism and bread; for only in these two do we find both the divinely inst.i.tuted sign and the promise of forgiveness of sins. The sacrament of penance, which I added to these two[195] lacks the divinely inst.i.tuted visible sign, and is, as I have said[196], nothing but a return to baptism. Nor can the scholastics say that their definition fits penance, for they too ascribe to the sacrament a visible sign, which is to impress upon the senses the form of that which it effects invisibly. But penance, or absolution, has no such sign; wherefore they are constrained by their own definition, either to admit that penance is not a sacrament, and thus to reduce the number of sacraments, or else to bring forward another definition.

Baptism, however, which we have applied to the whole of life, will truly be a sufficient subst.i.tute for all the sacraments we might need as long as we live. And the bread is truly the sacrament of the dying; for in it we commemorate the pa.s.sing of Christ out of this world, that we may imitate Him. Thus we may apportion these two sacraments as follows: baptism belongs to the beginning and the entire course of life, the bread belongs to the end and to death. And the Christian should use them both as long as he is in this poor body, until, fully baptised and strengthened, he pa.s.ses out of this world and is born unto the new life of eternity, to eat with Christ in the Kingdom of His Father, as He promised at the Last Supper,--"Amen I say to you, I will not drink from henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of G.o.d." [Matt. 26:29] Thus He seems clearly to have inst.i.tuted the sacrament of the bread with a view to our entrance into the life to come. Then, when the meaning[197] of both sacraments is fulfilled, baptism and bread will cease.

[Sidenote: Conclusion]

Herewith I conclude this prelude, and freely and gladly offer it to all pious souls who desire to know the genuine sense of the Scriptures and the proper use of the sacraments. For it is a gift of no mean importance, to know the things that are given us, as it is said in I Corinthians ii [1 Cor. 2:12], and what use we ought to make of them.

Endowed with this spiritual judgment, we shall not mistakenly rely on that which does not belong here. These two things our theologians never taught us, nay, methinks they took particular pains to conceal them from us. If I have not taught them, I certainly did not conceal them, and have given occasion to others to think out something better.

It has at least been my endeavor to set forth these two things.

Nevertheless, not all can do all things[198]. To the G.o.dless, on the other hand, and those who in obstinate tyranny force on us their own teachings instead of G.o.d's, I confidently and freely oppose these pages, utterly indifferent to their senseless fury. Yet I wish even them a sound mind, and do not despise their efforts, but only distinguish them from such as are sound and truly Christian.

I hear a rumor of new bulls and papal maledictions sent out against me, in which I am urged to recant or be declared a heretic[199]. If that is true, I desire this book to be a portion of the recantation I shall make; so that these tyrants may not complain of having had their pains for nothing. The remainder I will publish ere long, and it will, please Christ, be such as the Roman See has. .h.i.therto neither seen nor heard. I shall give ample proof of my obedience[200]. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Why doth that impious Herod fear When told that Christ the King is near?

He takes not earthly realms away, Who gives the realms that ne'er decay.[201]

FOOTNOTES

[1] Born at Steinheim, near Paderborn, in Westphalia; a proofreader in Melchior Lotter's printing-house at Leipzig, with whose oldest son he went to Wittenberg in 1519; professor of poetry at the university; rector of the same, 1525; one of Luther's staunchest supporters; rector of the school at Lunenberg, 1532 until his death in 1540.

Compare Enders, _Luther's Briewechsel_, II, 490; Tschackert, _op.

cit._, 203, and literature in Clemen, I, 426.

[2] _Resolutiones disputatio num de indulgentiarum Virtute_, 1518; others think he refers to the Sermon _von Abla.s.s und Gnade_, of the same year.

[3] Sylvester Prierias and the Dominicans. Comp. Kostlin-Kawerau, Luther, I, 189 ff.

[4] _Resolutiones super prop, xiii._, 1519.

[5] Comp. The Papacy at Rome, Vol. I, p. 392.

[6] Comp. Fr. Lepp, _Schlagworter des Ref. zeitalters_ (Leipzig, 1908), p. 62.

[7] The Franciscan Augustin Alveld. See Introduction, and compare Lemmens, _Pater Aug. v. Alveld_ (Freiburg, 1599).

[8] Isidore Isolani. See Introduction.

[9] Luther pokes fun at the use of _revocatio_ with an objective genitive.

[10] See above, p. 58, and compare Preserved Smith, _Luther's Correspondence_, Vol. I, letter no. 265.

[11] Cf. _The Papacy at Rome_, Vol. I, p. 337. The t.i.tle-page of Alveld's treatise contained twenty-six lines.

[12] A satiric reference to a section in Alveld's treatise, on the name of Jesus, which he spells IHSVH and brings proofs for this form from the three languages, mentioned. See Seckendor, _Hist. Luth._, lib. I, sect. 27, -- lxx, add. ii.

[13] Alveld calls himself, on his t.i.tle-page, _Francisca.n.u.s regularis observantiae Sanctae Crucis_. The Observantines were Franciscan monks of the stricter rule, who separated from the Conventuals in the XV.

Century. See _Prot. Realencyklopadie^3, VI, 213 ff.

[14] In the _Treatise on the Blessed Sacrament_; see above, p. 9.

[15] The universities of Cologne and Louvain had ratified Eck's "victory" over Luther at the Leipzig Disputation. See Kostlin-Kawerau, I, 266, 298.

[16] _De disputatione Lipsicensi_, 1519.

[17] _A venatione Luteriana Aegocerotis a.s.sertio_, 1519.

[18] Some theologians--e. g., Cajetan and Durandus--doubted whether the Sacrament of Order was received by deacons; the Council of Trent decided against them.--_Cath. Encyclop._, IV, 650.

[19] For Luther's opinion of Aristotle see above, pp. 146 f.

[20] The Franciscans are meant. The allusion may be to the seraphic vision of St. Francis.

[21] See above, pp. 153 ff.

[22] A less lenient view was taken by Boniface Amerbach, writing to his brother Basil at Basle, October 20, 1520: "The good man (Luther) was not a little injured by the libel of a poor impostor, who, by pretending that Martin had recanted, brought back even those who had entered upon the way of truth to their former errors." See Smith, _op.

cit._, I, no. 316.

[23] The present did not last very long; see below, p. 292.

[24] So called because of the withholding of the wine from the laity.

[25] Cf. 1 Tim. 3:16. See Kostlin, _Theology of Luther_ (E. Tr.), I, 403; and below, pp. 258 f.

[26] The _Treatise on the Blessed Sacrament_, 1519.

[27] See page 174.

[28] See above, p. 10, note 1.

[29] _Decretal. Greg., lib. Ill, t.i.t. xli, cap. 17_.

[30] Migne, XLIV, 699 f.

[31] _Verklarung etlicher Artikel_, 1520. _Weimer Ed._, VI, 80 11 ff.