LUTHER (Vol. 1-6). Grisar Hartmann
590 f.
[253] “Werke,” Weim. ed., 6, p. 591. See above, p. 25.
[254] Köhler, “Luther und die Kirchengesch.,” p. 226, and “Opp. Lat. var.,” 5, p. 216.
[255] “Coll.,” ed. Bindseil, 3, p. 240 f.
[256] Cp. Köhler, p. 165 f., from “Werke,” Weim. ed., 6, p. 185; ibid., p. 223: “It is certain that Luther had read nothing of Wiclif’s.”
[257] “Werke,” Erl. ed., 19², p. 152.
[258] “Werke,” Erl. ed., 19², p. 152.
[259] Denifle has shown from a large number of passages which Luther knew, that the Church at that time represented “God the Lord always as a merciful and gracious God, not as the stern judge” whom it was necessary “to propitiate by works” (Denifle, 1², p. 400 ff., pp. 420, 421).
[260] “Werke,” Erl. ed., 49, p. 315.
[261] “Literar. Beilage” to the “Köln. Volksztg.,” No. 44, October 29, 1903. “Luthers Selbstzeugnisse über seine Klosterzeit, eine Lutherlegende.”
[262] Various passages which are supposed to prove Luther’s moral faults, or defects in his character, have simply been passed over in the above as insufficient. Thus what he says regarding his state in the monastery: “Even where it was only a question of a small temptation of death or sin, I fell” (“Werke,” Erl. ed., 31, p. 279). This “fall,” according to the context, does not refer to a yielding to the attacks of evil desires, but the ostensible melting away of his trust in a merciful God. It is quite apparent that “a temptation of death” cannot be understood in the former, but only in the latter sense. Luther once says that the doctrine that sin is expelled all at once and that grace is infused also all at once in justification drives a man to despair, as his own experience teaches; for it is clear that sin dwells in the heart together with good, anger with mildness, sensuality with chastity (“Werke,” Weim. ed., 4, p. 664; “Opp. Lat. var.,” 1, p. 73 seq.); but he refers this whole explanation not to actual giving way to concupiscence, but simply to the inevitable continuance of concupiscence in the righteous, which he, it is true, calls sin. We may also mention here the text wrongly quoted in which, as a proof of his haughty bearing, speaking of a certain theological interpretation, he says: “legi mille auctores,” though he was then but a young man (“Werke,” Weim. ed., 9, p. 62; gloss to the Sentences). What he really says is: “lege mille auctores,” i.e. you will not find it otherwise in a thousand writers; the “legi” is only a misprint.
The statement which has been quoted as a proof of the self-deception which his pride engendered in him, viz. that God had placed him in his office as one quite “invincible,” rests on a similar misprint. Instead of “invictissimum,” as in Enders (“Briefwechsel,” 1, p. 21), we should read “invitissimum,” according to W. Walther’s correct rendering, and the idea is one which often recurs in Luther, viz. that God had called him to the office in spite of his disinclination. Nor can his want of the spirit of prayer be proved by his statement that he often followed the office with so much distraction that “the Psalm or the Hour (Hora) was ended before I noticed whether I was at the beginning or in the middle” (“Werke,” Erl. ed., 23, p. 22). If he were speaking of voluntary inattention, that would be something different, but the imagination of one so much occupied as he was might well be greatly distracted quite unintentionally.
[263] “Werke,” Weim. ed., 4, p. 295. Cp. ibid., 9, p. 112, Luther’s marginal note on Anselm’s “Opuscula,” which has the same meaning: Denifle-Weiss, 1², p. 507, n. 3.
[264] “Werke,” Weim. ed., 4, p. 262: “Recte dicunt Doctores, quod homini facienti quod in se est infallibiliter dat gratiam et licet non de condigno sese possit ad gratiam præparare, quia est incomparabilis (correct view of the supernatural) tamen bene de congruo propter promissionem istam Dei et pactum misericordiæ.” The best Scholastics, however, rightly questioned the “de congruo.” The proposition “Facienti,” etc., with “infallibiliter dat” instead of the usual “non denegat” is nominalistic (Denifle, 1¹, p. 556 f.; cp. pp. 407, 415).
[265] Besides the former passage, see for “congrue se disponere,” Weim. ed., 4, p. 329. Though Luther emphasises at the same time the gratis esse of grace, yet Loofs (“Dogmengesch.,” 4, p. 700) is not altogether wrong, having regard for Luther’s nominalistic views, in saying: “we must at least consider his opinion at that time as crypto-semi-Pelagian.” He is rightly indignant with Köstlin (“Luthers Theologie,”² p. 67 f.) for having “attempted to conform these passages with Luther’s later views.”
[266] Fol. 100. Denifle, 1¹, p. 414, n. 5; “Schol. Rom.,” p. 38: “per sui præparationem ad eandem, quantum in se est.”
[267] Fol. 100. Denifle, 1¹, p. 414, n. 4; “Schol. Rom.,” p. 37.
[268] Fol. 212. Denifle-Weiss, 1, p. 508, n. 2; “Schol. Rom.,” p. 212: “habita autem gratia, (arbitrium) proprie factum est liberum, saltem respectu salutis.”
[269] “Werke,” Weim. ed., 9, p. 103; Loofs, p. 708.
[270] Cp. “Schol. Rom.,” p. 107.
[271] “Werke,” Erl. ed., 48, p. 388.
[272] “Werke,” Erl. ed., 15, p. 53 f.
[273] Ibid., 27, p. 180 f.; Weim. ed., 7, p. 24, Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen, 1520.
[274] “Werke,” Weim. ed., 1, p. 374. See below, chapter viii. 3.
[275] “Werke,” Weim. ed., 1, p. 35; “Opp. Lat. var.,” 1, p. 64: “Si cognoscatur, quod nullis consiliis, nullis auxiliis nostris concupiscentia ex nobis possit auferri, et hæc contra legem est, quæ dicit ‘Non concupisces’ et experimur omnes invincibilem esse concupiscentiam penitus, quid restat, nisi ut sapientia carnis cesset et cedat, desperet in semetipsa, pereat et humiliata aliunde quærat auxilium, quod sibi præstare nequit?.
[276] In Comm. on Epistle to the Rom., fol. 167;