The Tragedy of Luther's Hatred: The Last Days

This post is not written to mock Luther or those who love to read Luther's works. It is meant to inform those who maliciously attack one anaother as to the state of soul one can develop from hate. Luther's life is indeed a tragedy that rivals that of Shakespeare's works. Luther was a sad man who used hate as his fuel for life. Whether we be Protestant or Catholic we can all fall into this trap. Often times apologetics can get very personal and very heated, leading to uncharitable acts by all involved and I can admit that I have unfortunately fallen into this as well. For those whom I have offended by these actions I apologize to them. That being said I do not apologize for my beliefs, or for defending the Catholic Church and my faith in Christ Jesus. As they say, it is often not what you say, but the "tone" in which you say it.

It is important to look at Luther's life. More specifically in this article, his later life. Luther's hatred really took form when he burned Pope Leo X's bull (Illustrated above), rather than repent of his heretical positions. When looking at the later writings of Martin Luther we can see that he was not a humble individual who was at peace with his fellow man. He liked to attack the Church Fathers and insult their character as well as oppose anyone that did not go along with his personal interpretation of Scripture. I have posted before the many insults he hurled at Saints such as St. Jerome, St. Chrysostom, and St Basil to name a few. When looking at Martin Luther and his character, he is the complete opposite of how the Saints lived. This is something we want to avoid. Luther was a tormented individual. It can be seen that he was not at peace with God or the Church at the end of his life. Martin Luther's last days were filled with hate and discontent. Luther could not deal with others that followed his lead in interpreting Scripture alone for themselves. In fact he was often at odds with fellow "Reformers". He was known to have temper tantrums which often drove friends away from him. This is hardly a good method for demonstrating the gospel.

"It was this "terrible temper" which brought on the tragedy of alienation, that drove from him his most devoted friends and zealous co-labourers. Every contradiction set him ablaze. "Hardly one of us", in the lament of one of his votaries, "can escape Luther's anger and his public scourging" (Corp. Ref., V, 314). Carlstadt parted with him in 1522, after what threatened to be a personal encounter; Melancthon in plaintive tones speaks of his passionate violence, self-will, and tyranny, and does not mince words in confessing the humiliation of his ignoble servitude; Bucer, prompted by political and diplomatic motives, prudently accepts the inevitable "just as the Lord bestowed him on us"; Zwingli "has become a pagan, Œcolampadius . . . and the other heretics have in-devilled, through-devilled, over-devilled corrupt hearts and lying mouths, and no one should pray for them", all of them "were brought to their death by the fiery darts and spears of the devil" (Walch, op. cit., XX, 223); Calvin and the Reformed are also the possessors of "in-deviled, over-devilled, and through-devilled hearts"; Schurf, the eminent jurist, was changed from an ally to an opponent, with a brutality that defies all explanation or apology;Agricola fell a prey to a repugnance that time did not soften; Schwenkfeld, Armsdorf, Cordatus, all incurred his ill will, forfeited his friendship, and became the butt of his stinging speech." (1)

Scripture Alone was a great system for Luther until someone disagreed with his interpretation, as we can see from above. Luther also fought Zwingli over the words of Christ in the Gospel of John chapter 6 regarding the Eucharist. Zwingli argued to take Christ's words only symbolically or to be taken as "in the mind of the believer" while Luther claimed that the correct interpretation was that of "consubstantiation". They both disagreed on a fundamental interpretation of Scripture. This is a fact. Luther hated Zwingli so much that when Zwingli was killed in battle he said, "'he got what he deserved.... His death proved I'm right and he's wrong;.."

This is hardly the example of a holy person. How easy it is to take joy in your enemies destruction. This is however the opposite to how Christ acted in the Scriptures. While Luther scoffed at the death of his enemies, Luther could not deal with death in his own family at all, in fact it brought him despair. The Saints did not act like this when faced with obstacles such as these. They looked to God in their trials of life, while Luther looked to himself. In fact after his daughter died it was said that instead of being at peace with God he went into depression. One writer says, "Whilst the plague was sweeping Europe, the untimely death of his daughter Magdelena sets him off into a deep depression and ruminations on the signs of the End Days." (C.D. Merriman)(2)

These are not the only examples of his pathetic spiritual condition. It is written that his last sermon was not one of hope but of despair, "His last sermon in Wittenberg (17 Jan., 1546) is in a vein of despondency and despair. "Usury, drunkenness, adultery, murder, assassination, all these can be noticed, and the world understands them to be sins, but the devil's bride, reason, that pert prostitute struts in, and will be clever and means what she says, that it is the Holy Ghost" (op. cit., XVI, 142-48). The same day he pens the pathetic lines "I am old, decrepit, indolent, weary, cold, and now have the sight of but one eye" (De Wette, op. cit., V, 778). Nevertheless peace was not his." (1)

His torments also carried over to his hatred for the Jewish people. It is a fact that Luther was an anti-Semite and of course anti-Catholic as well. "It was while in this agony of body and torture of mind, that his unsurpassable and irreproducible coarseness attained its culminating point of virtuosity in his anti-Semitic and antipapal pamphlets. "Against the Jews and their Lies" was followed in quick succession by his even more frenzied fusillade "On the Schem Hamphoras" (1542) and "Against the Papacy established by the Devil" (1545)." (1) I quoted a few posts earlier on the his "Against the Papacy" work which was nothing more than emotionally charged rhetoric with little or no theological substance. The work he wrote in 1543 called 'On the Jews and Their Lies', can be found here. I think it is safe to say that his work was not "inspired" by the Holy Spirit. I will let you be the judge of that.

There are some people in recent times who try and lesson the anti-Catholic rhetoric of Luther by downplaying his later written works. Yet if we read history without revising it to suit our own tastes it is obvious that Luther hated the Catholic Church so much that even some of his friends thought he went too far in his mockery of the papacy. "Accompanying this last volcanic eruption, as a sort of illustrated commentary "that the common man, who is unable to read, may see and understand what he thought of the papacy" (Forstemann), were issued the nine celebrated caricatures of the pope by Lucas Cranach, with expository verses by Luther. These, "the coarsest drawings that the history of caricature of all times has ever produced" (Lange, "Der Papstesel", Gottingen, 1891,89), were so inexpressibly vile that a common impulse of decency demanded their summary suppression by his friends."(1) While it would be nice to think that Luther came to his senses in the end, it appears that he was as anti-Catholic as ever when death came to his bedside.

We can all learn a lesson from this sad and tormented individual. We often die as we live. Luther's life was a life full of anger and hatred. His life did not resemble that of Our Savior's. It did not resemble that of the Saints who lived their lives in humility and love for others, even their enemies. Luther had the audacity to attack Saint Basil, yet did Saint Basil act like Luther? No, even when Saint Basil disagreed with the Holy See he did so with humility. He even admitted to being hasty in his actions when trying to petition Rome for better relations with the Eastern Church of the time. We however never see one ounce of humility from Luther towards anyone who disagreed with him.

This is a lesson we can all learn from whether we be Protestant or Catholic. I myself often find it all too easy to attack others in anger who disagree with the Church rather than resorting to prayer or a charitable response. It is far to easy to attack evil with evil rather than do it God's way. Recently one of our priests gave a great sermon on charity. It was one that I knew God was directing at me. Father made it clear that few are won over by pure logical argumentation alone, and fewer are won over by anger-filled, logical argumentation alone. Charity must come before rational arguments, because it is the heart that listens to the gospel, which is more often expressed by actions rather than words. So we can see that while there is a place for logical, rational arguments, most often people are won over by people who are simply living the gospel in their everyday actions and charity. This is the higher test of the Christian, rather than resorting to hate filled responses, which are admittedly all too easy to write. Apologetics should not lead others or oneself to hate-filled language. Luther unfortunately found himself in that very situation. Christ had every right to attack everyone who disagreed with him as well as personally destroy the character of every person walking the face of the earth who opposed him, but He didn't. This is lesson to all of us.

Finally I find it fitting that Luther died at the hour opposite of Christ's death on the cross. It is fitting because he often prayed for the papacy to be attacked, and in fact some say one of his last acts was to petition God for the destruction of the papacy. "His last act was, as he predicted and prayed for, an attack on the papacy. Summoned to Eisleben, his native place, a short time after, to act as an arbiter in a contention between the brothers Albrecht and Gebhard von Mansfeld, death came with unexpected speed but not suddenly, and he departed this life about three o'clock in the morning, 18 February, 1546, in the presence of a number of friends." (1) Just in case you do not like the Catholic Encyclopedia as a source, the final written account from Justus Jonas reads, "Luther's last breath was taken at 2:45 am.." So 3AM is not far off the mark if we go by this account. Luther died a fitting death, the opposite of our Lord's. Let us all pray that we do not follow in Luther's footsteps. Charity is the hardest part of the gospel to live.


Sources
(1) Catholic Encyclopedia.

(2) Martin Luther by C.D. Merriman for Jalic Inc. Copyright Jalic Inc 2005