Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

Luther and the Reformation: - The Life-Springs of Our Liberties by Joseph A. Seiss
page 46 of 154 (29%)
rightly done in God's name," said Luther, "it will come to nothing; if
it is, let come what will."

It was honest duty to God, truth, and the salvation of men that moved
him. Cowardly policy or timid expediency in such a matter was totally
foreign to his soul.

In a few days, the substance of the sermon was in print. Tetzel raved
over it. Melanchthon says he burnt it in the market-place of
Jüterbock. In the name of God and the pope he bade defiance to its
author, and challenged him by fire and water. Luther laughed at him
for braying so loud at a distance, yet declining to come to Wittenberg
to argue out the matter in close lists.


APPEAL TO THE BISHOPS.

Anxious to vindicate the Church from what he believed to be an
unwarranted liberty in the use of her name, Luther wrote to the bishop
of Brandenburg and the archbishop of Mayence. He made his points, and
appealed to these his superiors to put down the scandalous falsities
advanced by Tetzel. They failed to answer in any decisive way. The one
timidly advised silence, and the other had too much pecuniary interest
in the business to notice the letter.

Thus, as a pastor, Luther had taken his ground before his parishioners
in the confessional. As a preacher he had uttered himself in earnest
admonition from the pulpit. As a loyal son he had made his
presentation and appeal to those in authority over him. Was he right?
or was he wrong? No commanding answer came, and there remained one
DigitalOcean Referral Badge