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第36章

beacon lights of history-iii-2-第36章

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pharisee; the monk; the ritualist; is gloomy; ascetic; severe;

intolerant; for he is not quite sure of his salvation。  A man who

accepts heaven as a gift is full of divine enthusiasm; like Saint

Augustine。  Luther now comprehends Augustine; the great doctor of

the Church; embraces his philosophy and sees how much it has been

misunderstood。  The rare attainments and interesting character of

Luther are at last recognized; he is made a professor of divinity

in the new university; which the Elector of Saxony has endowed; at

Wittenberg。  He becomes a favorite with the students; he enters

into the life of the people。  He preaches with wonderful power; for

he is popular; earnest; original; fresh; electrical。  He is a monk

still; but the monk is merged in the learned doctor and eloquent

preacher。  He does not yet even dream of attacking monastic

institutions; or the Pope; he is a good Catholic in his obedience

to authorities; but he hates the Middle Ages; and all their

ghostly; funereal; burdensome; and technical religious customs。  He

is human; almost convivial;fond of music; of poetry; of society;

of friends; and of the good cheer of the social circle。  The people

love Luther; for he has a broad humanity。  They never did love

monks; only feared their maledictions。



About this time the Pope was in great need of money: this was Leo

X。  He not only squandered his vast revenues in pleasures and

pomps; like any secular monarch; he not only collected pictures and

statues; but he wanted to complete St。 Peter's Church。  It was

the crowning glory of papal magnificence。  Where was he to get

money except from the contributions of Christendom?  But kings and

princes and bishops and abbots were getting tired of this

everlasting drain of money to Rome; in the shape of annats and

taxes; so Leo revived an old custom of the Dark Ages;he would

sell 〃plenary indulgences〃; and he sent his agents to market them

in every country。



The agent in Saxony was a very popular preacher; a shrewd Dominican

prior by the name of Tetzel。  Luther abhorred him; not so much

because he was vulgar and noisy; but because his infamous business

derogated from the majesty of God and religion。  In wrathful

indignation he preached against Tetzel and his practices;the

abominable traffic of indulgences。  Only God can forgive sins。  It

seemed to him to be an insult to the human understanding that any

man; even a pope; should grant an absolution for crime。  These

indulgences also provided the release of deceased friends from

purgatory。  And it was useless to preach against them so long as

the principles on which they were based were not assailed。

Everybody believed in penance; everybody believed that this; in

some form; would insure salvation。  It consisted in a temporal

penalty or punishment inflicted on the sinner after confession to

the priest; as a condition of his receiving absolution or an

authoritative pardon of his sin by the Church as God's

representative。  And the indulgence was originally an official

remission of this penalty; to be gained by offerings of money to

the Church for its sacred uses。  However ingenious this theory; the

practice inevitably ran into corruption。  The people who bought;

the agents who sold; the popes who dispensed; these indulgences

wrested them from their original intention。



Fortunately; in those times in Germany everybody felt he had a soul

to save。  Neither the popes nor the Church ever lost that idea。

The clergy ruled by its force;by stimulating fears of divine

wrath; whereby the wretched sinner would be physically tormented

forever; unless he escaped by a propitiation of the Deity;the

common form of which was penance; deeds of supererogation;

donations to the Church; self…expiation; works of fear and

penitence; which commended themselves to the piety of the age; and

this piety Luther now believed to be unenlightened; not the kind

enjoined by Christ or Paul。



So; to instruct his students and the people as to the true ground

of justification; which he had worked out from the study of the

Bible and Saint Augustine amid the agonies of a tormented

conscience; Luther prepared his theses;those celebrated ninety…

five propositions; which he affixed to the gates of the church of

Wittenberg; and which excited a great sensation throughout Northern

Germany; reaching even the eyes of the Pope himself; who did not

comprehend their tendency; but was struck with their power。  〃This

Doctor Luther;〃 said he; 〃is a man of fine genius。〃  The students

of the university; and the people generally; were kindled as if by

Pentecostal fires。  The new invention of printing scattered those

theses everywhere; far and near; they reached the humble hamlet as

well as the palaces of bishops and princes。  They excited immediate

and immense enthusiasm: there was freshness in them; originality;

and great ideas。  We cannot wonder at the enthusiasm which those

religious ideas excited nearly four hundred years ago when we

reflect that they were not cant words then; not worn…out

platitudes; not dead dogmas; but full of life and exciting

interest;even as were the watchwords of Rousseau〃Liberty;

Fraternity; Equality〃to Frenchmen; on the outbreak of their

political revolution。  And as those watchwordsabstractly true

roused the dormant energies of the French to a terrible conflict

against feudalism and royalty; so those theses of Luther kindled

Germany into a living flame。  And why?  Because they presented more

cheerful and comforting grounds of justification than had been

preached for one thousand years;faith rather than penance; for

works hinged on penance。  The underlying principle of those

propositions was GRACE;divine grace to save the world;the

principle of Paul and Saint Augustine; therefore not new; but

forgotten; a mighty comfort to miserable people; mocked and cheated

and robbed by a venal and a gluttonous clergy。  Even Taine admits

that this doctrine of grace is the foundation stone of

Protestantism as it spread over Europe in the sixteenth century。

In those places where Protestantism is dead;where rationalism or

Pelagian speculations have taken its place;this fact may be

denied; but the history of Northern Europe blazes with it;a fact

which no historian of any honesty can deny。



Very likely those who are not in sympathy with this great idea of

Luther; Augustine; and Paul may ignore the fact;even as Caleb

Cushing once declared to me; that the Reformation sprang from the

desire of Luther to marry Catherine Bora; and that learned and

ingenious sophist overwhelmed me with his citations from infidel

and ribald Catholic writers like Audin。  Greater men than he deny

that grace underlies the whole original movement of the reformers;

and they talk of the Reformation as a mere revolt from Rome; as a

war against papal corruption; as a protest against monkery and the

dark ages; brought about by the spirit of a new age; the onward

march of humanity; the necessary progress of society。  I admit the

secondary causes of the Reformation; which are very important;the

awakened spirit of inquiry in the sixteenth century; the revival of

poetry and literature and art; the breaking up of feudalism;

fortunate discoveries; the introduction of Greek literature; the

Renaissance; the disgusts of Christendom; the voice of martyrs

calling aloud from their funeral pyres; yea; the friendly hand of

princes and scholars deploring the evils of a corrupted Church。

But how much had Savonarola; or Erasmus; or John Huss; or the

Lollards aroused the enthusiasm of Europe; great and noble as were

their angry and indignant protests?  The genius of the Reformation

in its early stages was a RELIGIOUS movement; not a political or a

moral one; although it became both political and moral。  Its

strength and fervor were in the new ideas of salvation;the same

that; gave power to the early preachers of Christianity;not

denunciations of imperialism

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