BUT MORE TERRIBLE COMBATS than these awaited Luther. Rome was brandishing the sword with which she was about to strike the gospel. The rumor of the condemnation that was destined to fall upon him, far from dispiriting the reformer, augmented his courage. He manifested no anxiety to parry the blows of this haughty power. It was by inflicting more terrible blows himself that he would neutralize those of his adversaries. While the transalpine assemblies were thundering out anathemas against him, he bore the sword of the Word into the midst of the Italian people. Letters from Venice spoke of the favor with which Luther’s sentiments were received there. He burned with desire to send the gospel across the Alps. Evangelists were wanted to carry it thither. "I wish," said he, "that we had living books, that is, preachers, and that we could multiply and protect them everywhere, in order that they might convey to the people a knowledge of holy things. The prince could not undertake a more glorious task. If the people of Italy should receive the truth, our cause would then be impregnable."

It does not appear that Luther’s project was realized. In later years, it is true, evangelical men, even Calvin himself, sojourned for a short period in Italy; but for the present Luther’s designs were not carried out. He had addressed one of the mighty princes of the world: if he had appealed to men of humble rank, but full of zeal for the kingdom of God, the result might have been different. At that period, the idea generally prevailed, that everything should be done by governments; and the association of simple individuals – that power which is now effecting such great things in Christendom – was almost unknown.

If Luther did not succeed in his projects for propagating the truth in distant countries, he was only the more zealous in announcing it himself. It was at this time that he preached, at Wittenberg, his sermon on the Mass. In this discourse he inveighed against the numerous sects of the Romish Church, and reproached it, with reason, for its want of unity. "The multiplicity of spiritual laws," says he, "has filled the world with sects and divisions. Priests, monks, and laymen have come to hate each other more than the Christians hate the Turks. What do I say? Priests against priests, and monks against monks, are deadly enemies. Each one is attached to his own sect, and despises all others. The unity and charity of Christ are at an end." He next attacked the doctrine that the mass is a sacrifice, and has some virtue in itself. "What are most precious in every sacrament, and consequently in the eucharist," says he, "are the promises and the Word of God. Without faith in this Word and these promises, the sacrament is dead: it is a body without a soul, a vessel without wine, a purse without money, a type without fulfillment, a letter without spirit, a casket without jewels, a scabbard without a sword."

Luther’s voice was not, however, confined to Wittenberg; and if he did not find missionaries to bear his instructions to distant lands, God had provided a missionary of a new kind. The printing-press was the successor of the Evangelists. This was the breeching-battery employed against the Roman fortress. Luther had prepared a mine, the explosion of which shook the edifice of Rome to its lowest foundations. This was the publication of his famous book on the Babylonish Captivity of the Church, which appeared on October 6, 1520. Never did man in so critical a position display greater courage.

In this work he first set forth with haughty irony all the advantages for which he was indebted to his enemies:

"Whether I will it or not, I become wiser every day, urged on as I am by so many illustrious masters. Two years ago, I attacked indulgences, but with so much indecision and fear that I am now ashamed of it. There is no cause for astonishment in this, for I was alone when I set this stone rolling." He thanked Prierio, Eck, Emser, and his other adversaries: "I denied that the papacy was of divine origin, but I granted that it was of human right. Now, after reading all the subtleties on which these gentry have set up their idol, I know that the papacy is none other than the kingdom of Babylon, and the violence of Nimrod the mighty hunter. I therefore beseech all my friends and all the booksellers to burn the books that I have written on this subject, and to substitute this one proposition in their place: The papacy is a vigorous chase led by the Roman bishop, to catch and destroy souls."

Luther next proceeded to attack the prevailing errors on the sacraments, monastic vows, etc. He reduced the seven sacraments of the Church to three; namely, baptism, penance, and the Lord’s Supper. After explaining the true nature of this Supper, he passed on to baptism; and it is here in particular that he laid down the excellence of faith, and vigorously attacked Rome. "God," said he, "has preserved this sacrament alone free from human traditions. God has said: ‘He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.’ This promise of God should be preferred before all the glory of works, all vows, all satisfactions, all indulgences, and all inventions of man. Now, upon this promise, if we receive it with faith, depends our whole salvation. If we believe, our hearts are strengthened by the divine promise; and though the believer should be forsaken of all, this promise in which he believes will never forsake him. With it, he will resist the adversary who lies in wait for his soul, and be prepared to meet remorseless death and stand before the judgment seat of God. It will be his consolation in all his trials to say: God’s promises never deceive; of their truth I received a pledge at my baptism; if God is for me, who shall be against me? Oh, how rich is the Christian that has been baptized! Nothing can destroy him except he refuse to believe.

"Perhaps to what I have said on the necessity of faith, they will object to me the baptism of little children. But as the Word of God is mighty to change even the heart of a wicked man, who is however neither less deaf nor ignorant than a little child; in like manner also the prayers of the Church, to which all things are possible, change the little child, by the faith that it pleases God to pour into his heart, and thus purifies and renews it."

After having thus explained the doctrine of baptism, Luther wielded it as a weapon of offense against the papacy. In fact, if the Christian finds all his salvation in the renewal of his baptism by faith, what need has he of the Romish ordinances?

"For this reason, I declare," says Luther, "that neither the pope, nor the bishop, nor any man whatsoever, has authority to impose the least thing on a Christian, unless it be with his own consent. All that is done without it is an act of tyranny. We are free as regards all men. The vow that we made at our baptism is sufficient of itself, and is more than we can ever fulfill. All other vows may therefore be abolished. Let every man who enters the priesthood or any religious order clearly understand that the works of a monk or of a priest differ in no respect before God from those of a peasant who tills his fields, or of a woman who manages her house. God estimates all things by the standard of faith. And it often happens that the simple labor of a serving man or maiden is more acceptable to God than the fasts and works of a monk, because the latter are void of faith. . . . Christians are God’s true people, led captive to Babylon, where everything has been taken from them which baptism hath given."

Such were the weapons by which that religious revolution whose history we are retracing was effected. First, the necessity of faith was re-established, and then the reformers employed it as a weapon to dash to atoms every superstition. It is with this power of God, which removes mountains, that they attacked so many errors.

Luther terminated this famous writing on the Captivity of Babylon with these words:

"I hear that new papal excommunications are about to be fabricated against me. If it be true, this present book must be considered as part of my future recantation. The remainder will soon follow, to prove my obedience; and the complete work will form, with Christ’s aid, such a whole as Rome has never heard or seen the like."

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