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jokes from prelates, and was filled with horror at their awful profan-
ity, even during mass. As he mingled with the monks and citizens,
he met dissipation, debauchery. Turn where he would, in the place
of sanctity he found profanation. “It is incredible,” he wrote, “what
sins and atrocities are committed in Rome.” “If there be a hell, Rome
is built above it. It is an abyss whence all sins proceed.”
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An indulgence had been promised by the pope to all who should
ascend on their knees what was known as Pilate’s staircase. Luther
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was one day performing this act, when suddenly a voice like thunder
seemed to say to him, “The just shall live by faith!” He sprung upon
his feet in shame and horror, and fled from the scene of his folly.
That text never lost its power upon his soul. From that time he saw
more clearly than ever before the fallacy of trusting to human works
for salvation, and the necessity of constant faith in the merits of
Christ. His eyes had been opened, and were never again to be closed,
to the Satanic delusions of the papacy. When he turned his face
from Rome, he had turned away also in heart, and from that time
the separation grew wider, until he severed all co
papal church.
After his return from Rome, Luther received at the University of
Wittemberg the degree of doctor of divinity. Now he was at liberty to
devote himself, as never before, to the Scriptures that he loved. He
had taken a solemn vow to study carefully and to preach with fidelity
the word of God, not the sayings and doctrines of the popes, all
the days of his life. He was no longer the mere monk or professor,
but the authorized herald of the Bible. He had been called as a
shepherd to feed the flock of God, that were hungering and thirsting
for the truth. He firmly declared that Christians should receive no
other doctrines than those which rest on the authority of the Sacred
Scriptures. These words struck at the very foundation of papal
supremacy. They contained the vital principle of the Reformation.
Luther saw the danger of exalting human theories above the
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word of God. He fearlessly attacked the speculative infidelity of the
schoolmen, and opposed the philosophy and theology which had so
long held a controlling influence upon the people. He denounced
such studies as not only worthless but pernicious, and sought to turn
the minds of his hearers from the sophistries of philosophers and
theologians to the eternal truths set forth by prophets and apostles.
Precious was the message which he bore to the eager crowds
that hung upon his words. Never before had such teachings fallen
upon their ears. The glad tidings of a Saviour’s love, the assurance
of pardon and peace through his atoning blood, rejoiced their hearts,
and inspired within them an immortal hope. At Wittemberg a light
was kindled whose rays should extend to the uttermost parts of the
earth, and which was to increase in brightness to the close of time.
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The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4
But light and darkness ca
error there is an irrepressible conflict. To uphold and defend the one
is to attack and overthrow the other. Our Saviour himself declared,
“I came not to send peace, but a sword.” [Matthew 10:34.] Said Luther, a few years after the opening of the Reformation, “God does
not conduct, but drives me forward. I am not master of my own
actions. I would gladly live in repose, but I am thrown into the midst
of tumults and revolutions.” He was now about to be urged into the
contest.
The Roman Church had made merchandise of the grace of God.
The tables of the money-changers were set up beside her altars, and
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the air resounded with the shouts of buyers and sellers. Under the
plea of raising funds for the erection of St. Peter’s church at Rome,
indulgences for sin were publicly offered for sale by the authority of
the pope. By the price of crime a temple was to be built up for God’s
worship,—the corner-stone laid with the wages of iniquity. But
the very means of Rome’s aggrandizement provoked the deadliest
blow to her power and greatness. It was this that aroused the most
determined and successful of the enemies of popery, and led to the
battle which shook the papal throne to its foundation, and jostled the
triple crown upon the pontiff’s head.
The official appointed to conduct the sale of indulgences in Ger-
many—Tetzel by name—had been convicted of the basest offenses
against society and against the law of God; but having escaped
the punishment due to his crimes, he was employed to further the
mercenary and unscrupulous projects of the Romish Church. With
great effrontery he repeated the most glaring falsehoods, and related
marvelous tales to deceive an ignorant, credulous, and superstitious
people. Had they possessed the word of God, they would not have
been thus deceived. It was to keep them under the control of the
papacy, that they might swell the power and wealth of her ambitious
leaders, that the Bible had been withheld from them.
As Tetzel entered a town, a messenger went before him, an-
nouncing, “The grace of God and of the holy father is at your gates.”
And the people welcomed the blasphemous pretender as if he were
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God himself come down from Heaven to them. The infamous traffic
was set up in the church, and Tetzel, ascending the pulpit, extolled
indulgences as the most precious gift of God. He declared that by
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virtue of his certificates of pardon, all the sins which the purchaser
should afterward desire to commit would be forgiven him, and that
even repentance was not indispensable. More than this, he assured
his hearers that the indulgences had power to save not only the living
but the dead; that the very moment the money should clink against
the bottom of his chest, the soul in whose behalf it had been paid
would escape from purgatory and make its way to Heaven.
When Simon Magus offered to purchase of the apostles the
power to work miracles, Peter answered him, “Thy money perish
with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be
purchased with money.” [Acts 8:20.] But Tetzel’s offer was grasped by eager thousands. Gold and silver flowed into his treasury. A
salvation that could be bought with money was more easily obtained
than that which requires repentance, faith, and diligent effort to resist
and overcome sin.
The doctrine of indulgences had been opposed by men of learn-
ing and piety in the Romish Church, and there were many who had
no faith in pretensions so contrary to both reason and revelation. Yet