Papacy sanctioned any departure from established custom, it was
understood to do so in its capacity of infallible expounder of
unalterable doctrines.

The habits of centuries still enthralled the early Reformers.
Circumstances compelled them to attack some of the doctrines and customs
of their Mother Church, of which at first they were inclined to regard
themselves as dutiful though sorrowful sons. The logic of facts,
however, soon forced them outside the Church. Then, but then only, for
the authority of the Church, they substituted the authority of the
Scriptures. To apply to them Luther's own words, "they had saved others,
themselves they could not save." In their eyes Reason and Faith were
still mortal enemies,--as unfortunately they are to this day in the eyes
of a steadily diminishing number of their followers,--and they did not
hesitate to demand the sacrifice of reason when it conflicted, or
appeared to conflict, with the demands of faith: and that, indeed, as
"the all-acceptablest sacrifice and service that can be offered to God."
In a sermon in 1546, the last he delivered at Wittenberg, Luther gave
vent, in language that even one of his modern admirers finds too gross
for quotation, to his bitter hatred and contempt for reason, at all
events when it conflicted with his own interpretation of the Scriptures,
or with any of the fundamental dogmas and doctrines he had himself
formulated or accepted. While even in milder moments he did not hesitate
to teach that[4:1]--

"It is a quality of faith that it wrings the neck of reason and
strangles the beast, which else the whole world, with all
creatures, could not strangle. But how? It holds to God's word:
lets it be right and true, no matter how foolish and impossible it
sounds. So did Abraham take his reason captive and slay it....