LUTHER (Vol. 1-6). Grisar Hartmann
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If, moreover, we bear in mind the character of the theses at this Disputation, which went far beyond anything that had yet appeared, but were nevertheless advocated before all the members assembled, we cannot but look upon this unhappy Chapter as the shipwreck of the German Augustinian Congregation. At the next Chapter, which was held after an interval of two years, i.e. sooner than was customary, Staupitz received a severe reprimand from the General of the Order and at last laid down his office as Superior of the Congregation.[830] His weakness and vacillation had, however, by that time already borne fruit.
Leonard Beyer, an Augustinian, another of Luther’s youthful pupils, was chosen by him to defend the theses at Heidelberg under his own supervision. The Disputation was held in the Lecture-room of the Augustinian monastery in the town. Among the numerous guests present were the professors of the University of Heidelberg. They were not of Luther’s way of thinking, and rather inclined to join issue in the discussion, though in general their demeanour was peaceable; one of the younger professors, however, in the course of the dispute voiced his disagreement in an interruption: “If the peasants hear that, they will certainly stone you.”
Among those present, four young theologians, who at a later date went over to the new faith and became its active promoters, followed with lively interest the course of the discussion, in which Luther himself frequently took part; these were Martin Bucer, an eloquent Dominican, afterwards preacher at Strasburg and a close friend of Luther; Johann Brenz, a Master of Philosophy, who subsequently worked for the new teaching in Swabia; Erhard Schnepf, who became eventually a preacher in Württemberg, and Theobald Billicanus, whom the theologians at Heidelberg who remained faithful to the Church summoned to be examined before them on account of his lectures, and who then was responsible for the apostasy of the town of Nördlingen. The Disputation at Heidelberg had a great influence on all these, and rendered them favourable to Luther.
The first named, Martin Bucer, full of enthusiasm for Luther, informed a friend, that at the end of the Disputation he had completely triumphed over all his opponents and roused in almost all his hearers admiration of his learning, eloquence, and fearlessness.[831]
If, however, we consider the theses from the theological standpoint, we are able to understand better the impression which Bucer in the same letter states they made on others, namely, that this new theology of Wittenberg, which exalted itself above Scholasticism and the learning of previous ages, and even above the teaching of the whole Church from the time of her Divine institution, justified the most serious apprehensions and indictments.
Twenty-eight theses had been selected from theology and twelve from philosophy. The very first theological proposition declared in Luther’s bold, paradoxical style, that the law of God was unable to assist a man to righteousness, but, on the contrary, was a hindrance to him in this respect.[832] Some of the other propositions were hardly less strong: Man’s works, however good they may be, are probably never anything but mortal sins (3); after sin free will is will only in name, and when a man has done the best he is capable of, he commits a mortal sin (13). If these assertions recall some which we have heard before, they are followed by others expressing, in the most startling manner, his theory on grace. “He is not righteous who performs many works, but he who, without works, believes firmly in Christ” (25). “The law says, ‘do this’ and it is never done; Grace says ‘believe in Him (Christ)’ and everything is already done” (26). “Man must altogether despair of himself in order to be fit to receive the grace of Christ” (18).
In the proofs, the text of which is still extant and was probably printed together with the theses, we read other statements which remove all doubt as to the seriousness of the propositions put forth: “Righteousness is infused by faith, for we read: ‘the just man liveth by faith’ (Rom. i. 17) ... not as though the just man did not perform any works, but because his works are not the cause of righteousness, but righteousness is the cause of the works. Grace and faith are infused without any work on our part, and then the works follow.”[833]
Luther in one passage of these “proofs” addresses to himself the only too-well-founded objection: “Therefore we will be content without virtue as we on our part are able only to sin!”[834] But instead of solving this objection in a proper form, he answers rhetorically: “No, fall on your knees and implore grace, put your hope in Christ in Whom is salvation, life and resurrection. Fear and wrath are wrought by the law, but hope and mercy by grace.”[835]
Underlying the whole Disputation, we perceive that antagonism to the fear of God as the Judge of transgressions against the law, which the reader has before remarked in Luther; that fear which Catholic teaching had hitherto represented as the beginning of conversion and justification.
Utterances drawn from that mysticism into which he had plunged and the language of which he had at that time made his own, are also noticeable. He speaks at the Disputation of the annihilation through which a man must pass in order to arrive at the certainty of salvation (a road which is assuredly only for the few, whereas all stand in need of certainty): “Whoever is not destroyed and brought back to nothingness by the cross and suffering, attributes to himself works and wisdom. But whoever has passed through this annihilation does not pursue works, but leaves God to work and to do all in him; it is the same to him whether he performs works or not; he is not proud of himself when he does anything, nor despondent when God does not work in him.”[836] He then proceeds, describing the absolute passivity of his mysticism as the foundation of the process of salvation: “He [who is to be justified] knows that it is enough for him to suffer and be destroyed by the cross in order to be yet more annihilated. This is what Christ meant when He said (John iii. 7): ‘Ye must be born again.’ If Christ speaks of ‘being born again,’ it necessarily follows that we must first die, i.e. feel death as though it were present.”
Besides the antagonism to true and well-grounded fear, and the mystical veneer, there is a third psychological element which must be pointed out in the Heidelberg Theses, viz. the uncalled-for emphasis laid on the strength of concupiscence and man’s inclination to what is evil, and the insufficient appreciation of the means of grace which lead to victory. This view of the domination of evil, which must ultimately be favourable to libertinism, accompanies the theoretical expression and the practical realisation of his system.
In the Heidelberg Disputation we find in the proof of thesis 13, already referred to: “It is clear as day that free will in man, after Adam’s Fall, is merely a name and therefore no free will at all, at least as regards the choice of good; for it is a captive, and the servant of sin; not as though it did not exist, but because it is not free except for what is evil.”[837] This Luther pretends to find in Holy Scripture (John viii. 34, 36), in two passages of St. Augustine “and in countless other places.” He undertakes to prove this in a special note, by the fact that, according to the teaching of the Fathers of the Church, man is unable during life to avoid all faults, that he must fall without the assistance of grace, and that, according to 2 Timothy ii. 26, he is held captive by the “snares of the devil.” “The wicked man sins,” he says, “when he does what is good.” “The righteous man also sins in his good works,” according to the words of the Apostle: “But I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind” (Rom. vii. 23). God works everything in us; but just as the carpenter, however capable he may be, cannot work properly with a jagged axe, so, in spite of God’s work, sin still remains, owing to the imperfection of the tool He makes use of, i.e. on account of the sinfulness which permeates us.[838]