Page:The letters of Martin Luther.djvu/22

 It is interesting to note that Luther’s unalterable opinion of the Turk coincides with that of the Sultan’s greatest foes in this twentieth century, and then, as now, His Sultanic Majesty tried to propitiate his distinguished foe, but with less success than he often meets with in this enlightened age.

From these letters may also be seen the two greatest blots on Luther’s career: the part he took in the peasant insurrection and in the Landgrave Philip’s double marriage. But Luther’s immense respect for constitutional authority, and his horror of insubordination, may partly explain the former, while the personal influence of his much loved Prince, who stood by him both at Worms and in the Augsburg days, may account for the latter; but both errors bore bitter fruit in days to come.

Luther’s great breadth of view regarding ritual, vestments, etc., must interest many in the present day. But it will astonish them to see how immaterial he considered pictures, and candles burning on the altar, when compared with the pure preaching of the Word. The only advantage which he saw in these things was that they might arrest the attention of the illiterate, the weak-minded, and children, till their knowledge of Divine things increased.

The Swiss divines, when in Wittenberg in 1536, were horrified at these relics of Popery, and it required all Bugenhagen’s assurances that no one now worshipped any picture, to pacify Bucer and Capito, who, like our own John Knox, put away everything tainted with Popery, while Luther retained all not expressly forbidden in the Bible.

Before closing, the translator must acknowledge the debt due to the marvelous facilities afforded by those