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conscience. Liberty is the very essence of faith.” Ascending the
pulpit, he with great wisdom and gentleness instructed, exhorted,
and reproved, and by the power of the gospel brought back the
misguided people into the way of truth.
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Luther had no desire to encounter the fanatics whose course had
been productive of so great evil. He knew them to be men of hasty
and violent temper, who, while claiming to be especially illuminated
from Heaven, would not endure the slightest contradiction, or even
the kindest admonition. Arrogating to themselves supreme authority,
they required every one, without a question, to acknowledge their
claims. But as they demanded an interview with him, he consented
to meet them; and so successfully did he expose their pretensions,
that the impostors at once departed from Wittemberg.
The fanaticism was checked for a time; but several years later
it broke out with greater violence and more terrible results. Said
Luther, concerning the leaders in this movement: “To them the Holy
Scriptures were but a dead letter, and they all began to cry, ‘The
Spirit! the Spirit!’ But most assuredly I will not follow where their
spirit leads them. May God in his mercy preserve me from a church
in which there are none but saints. I wish to be in fellowship with
the humble, the feeble, the sick, who know and feel their sins, and
who sigh and cry continually to God from the bottom of their hearts
to obtain his consolation and support.”
Thomas Munzer, the most active of the fanatics, was a man of
considerable ability, which, rightly directed, would have enabled
him to do good; but he had not learned the first principles of true
religion. He imagined himself ordained of God to reform the world,
forgetting, like many other enthusiasts, that the reform should begin
with himself. He was ambitious to obtain position and influence, and
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unwilling to be second, even to Luther. He charged the Reformers
with establishing, by their adherence to the Bible alone, a species of
popery. He considered himself called of God to remedy the evil, and
held that manifestations of the Spirit were the means by which this
was to be accomplished, and that he who had the Spirit possessed
the true faith, though he might never see the written word.
Progress of the Reformation
97
The fanatical teachers gave themselves up to be governed by
impressions, calling every thought of the mind the voice of God;
consequently they went to great extremes. Some even burned their
Bibles, exclaiming, “The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.” Men
naturally love the marvelous, and whatever flatters their pride, and
many were ready to accept Munzer’s teachings. He soon denounced
all order in public worship, and declared that to obey princes was to
attempt to serve both God and Belial.
The minds of the people, already begi
of the papacy, were also becoming impatient under the restraints of
civil authority. Munzer’s revolutionary teachings, claiming divine
sanction, led them to break away from all control, and give the rein
to their prejudices and passions. The most terrible scenes of sedition
and strife followed, and the fields of Germany were drenched with
blood.
The agony of soul which Luther had so long before experienced
in his cell at Erfurth, now pressed upon him with redoubled power as
he saw the results of fanaticism charged upon the Reformation. The
papist princes declared, and many believed, that Luther’s doctrine
had been the cause of the rebellion. Although this charge was
without the slightest foundation, it could not but cause the Reformer
great distress. That the work of Heaven should be thus degraded
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by being classed with the basest fanaticism, seemed more than he
could endure. On the other hand, the leaders in the revolt hated
Luther because he had not only opposed their doctrines and denied
their claims to divine inspiration, but had pronounced them rebels
against the civil authority. In retaliation they denounced him as a
base pretender. He seemed to have brought upon himself the enmity
of both princes and people.
The Romanists exulted, expecting to witness the speedy downfall
of the Reformation; and they blamed Luther, even for the errors
which he had been most earnestly endeavoring to correct. The
fanatical party, by falsely claiming to have been treated with great
injustice, succeeded in gaining the sympathies of a large class of the
people, and, as is usually the case with those who take the wrong
side, they came to be regarded as martyrs. Thus the ones who were
exerting every energy in opposition to the Reformation were pitied
and lauded as the victims of cruelty and oppression. This was the
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The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4
work of Satan, prompted by the same spirit of rebellion which was
first manifested in Heaven.
Satan is constantly seeking to deceive men, and lead them to
call sin righteousness, and righteousness sin. How successful has
been his work! How often are censure and reproach cast upon God’s
faithful servants because they will stand fearlessly in defense of the
truth! Men who are but agents of Satan are praised and flattered, and
even looked upon as martyrs, while those who should be respected
and sustained for their fidelity to God, are left to stand alone, under
suspicion and distrust.
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Counterfeit holiness, spurious sanctification, is still doing its
work of deception. Under various forms it exhibits the same spirit
as in the days of Luther, diverting minds from the Scriptures, and
leading men to follow their own feelings and impressions rather than
to yield obedience to the law of God. This is one of Satan’s most
successful devices to cast reproach upon purity and truth.
Fearlessly did Luther defend the gospel from the attacks which
came from every quarter. The word of God proved itself a weapon
mighty in every conflict. With that word he warred against the
usurped authority of the pope, and the rationalistic philosophy of the
schoolmen, while he stood firm as a rock against the fanaticism that
sought to ally itself with the Reformation.
Each of these opposing elements was in its own way setting aside
the Holy Scriptures, and exalting human wisdom as the source of re-
ligious truth and knowledge. Rationalism idolizes reason, and makes
this the criterion for religion. Romanism, claiming for her sovereign
pontiff an inspiration descended in unbroken line from the apostles,
and unchangeable through all time, gives ample opportunity for ev-
ery species of extravagance and corruption to be concealed under
the sanctity of the apostolic commission. The inspiration claimed