6 XIII. his Annotations on the Epistle to the Romans, in the CHAP. 'Novum Instrumentum,' had misinterpreted St. Paul's expression, justicia operum, or legis, and also had not A.D. 1516. spoken out clearly respecting original sin.' He believed that if Erasmus would read St. Augustine's books against Pelagius, &c., he would see his mistake. His friend interpreted justicia legis, or the 'righteous'ness of works,' not as referring only to the keeping of the ceremonial law, but to the observance of the whole decalogue. The observance of the latter might make a Fabricius or a Regulus, but without Christian faith it would no more savour of 'righteousness' than a medlar would taste like a fig. This was the weighty question upon which his friend had asked him to consult the oracle, and a response, however short, would be esteemed a most gracious favour.1 Luther Instru This unnamed friend of Spalatin was in fact Martin Martin Luther. The singular coincidence, that not only this reads the letter of Spalatin to Erasmus, but also the letter of Novum Luther to Spalatin,2 have been preserved, enables us to mentum.' picture the monk of Wittemberg sitting in his room in a corner of the monastery, pondering over the pages of the Novum Instrumentum,' and 'moved,' as he reads it, with feelings of grief and disappointment, because his quick eye discerns that the path in which Erasmus is treading points in a different direction from his own. In truth, Luther, though as yet without European fame-not having yet nailed his memorable theses to the Wittemberg church-door-had for years past fixed, if I may use the expression, the cardinal points of his theology. He had already clenched his fundamental 1 Spalatinus Erasmo: Eras. Epist. xciv. App. 2 Luther's Briefe. De Wette, i. 40, No. xxii. CHAP. XIII. convictions with too firm a grasp ever to relax. He had chosen his permanent standpoint, and for years had A.D. 1516. made it the centre of his public teaching in his professorial chair at the university, and in his pulpit also. The standpoint which he had so firmly taken was Augustinian. dencies. Luther's During the four years spent by him in the AugustiAugustinian ten- nian monastery at Erfurt, into which he had fled to escape from the terrors of conscience, he had deeply studied, along with the Scriptures, the works of St. Augustine. It was from the light which these works had shed upon the Epistles of St. Paul that he had mainly been led to embrace those views upon 'justifi'cation by faith' which had calmed the tumult and disarmed the lightnings of his troubled conscience. This statement rests upon the authority of Melanchthon, and is therefore beyond dispute.1 Eight years had passed since he had left Erfurt to become a professor in the Wittemberg University, and four or five years since his return from his memorable visit to Rome. During these last years his teaching and preaching had been full of the Augustinian theology. Melanchthon states that during this period he had written commentaries on the Romans,' and that in them and in his lectures and sermons he had laboured to refute the prevalent error, that it is possible to merit the forgiveness of sins by good works, pointing men to the Lamb of God, and throwing great light upon such questions as 'penitence,' remission of 'sins,' faith,' the difference between the Law' and the Gospel,' and the like. He also mentions that Luther, 1 Philippi Melanchthonis, Vita Martini Lutheri, chap. v. Vita ejus ' monastica.' catching the spirit which the writings of Erasmus had diffused, had taken to the study of Greek and Hebrew.1 CHAP. We may therefore picture the Augustinian monk-A.D. 1516. deeply read in the works of St. Augustine, and, as Ranke expresses it,2 embracing even his severer views,' having for years constantly taught them from his pulpit and professorial chair, clinging to them with a grasp which would never relax, looking at everything from this immovable Augustinian standpoint-now in 1516 with a copy of the Novum Instrumentum' before him on his table in his room in the cloisters of Wittemberg, reading it probably with eager expectation of finding his own views reflected in the writings of a man who was looked upon as the great restorer of Scriptural theology. Anti-Au tendencies He reads the Annotations on the Epistle to the Luther Romans. He does not find Erasmus using the watch- detects the words of the Augustinian theology. He does not find gustinian the words justicia legis understood in the Augustinian of Erassense, as referring to the observance of the whole moral law, but, rather, explained as referring to the Jewish ceremonial. He turns as a kind of touchstone to Chapter V., where the Apostle speaks of death as 'having reigned 'from Adam to Moses over those who had not sinned 6 after the similitude of Adam's transgression.' He finds Erasmus remarking that he does not think it needful here to resort to the doctrine of original sin,' however true in itself; he finds him hinting at the possibility of hating Pelagius more than enough,' and 1 Philippi Melanchthonis, Vita Martini Lutheri, chap. vi. vii. 2 Ranke refers to the period be fore 1516. See Hist. of Reforma- mus. СНАР. XIII. of resorting too freely to the doctrine of original sin' as a means of getting rid of theological difficulties, in A.D. 1516. the same way as astrologers had invented a system of epicycles to get them out of their astronomical ones.1 The Augustinian doctrine of 'original sin' compared to the epicycles of the astrologers! No wonder that Luther was moved as he traced in these Annotations symptoms of wide divergence from his own Augustinian views. In writing to Spalatin, he told him that he was 'moved;' and in asking him to question Erasmus further on the subject, he added that he felt no doubt that the difference in opinion between himself and Erasmus was a real one, because that, as regards the interpretation of Scripture, he saw clearly that Erasmus preferred Jerome to Augustine, just as much as he himself preferred Augustine to Jerome. Jerome, evidently on principle, he said, follows the historical sense, and he very much feared that the great authority of Erasmus might induce many to attempt to defend that literal, i.e. dead, understanding [of the Scriptures] of which the commentaries of Lyra and almost all after Augustine are full.2 Still Luther went on with the study of his Novum 'Instrumentum,' and we find him writing again from his hermitage' at Wittemberg, that every day as he reads he loses his liking for Erasmus. And again the reason crops out. Erasmus, with all his Greek and Hebrew, is lacking in Christian wisdom; just as 'Jerome, with all his knowledge of five languages, was 'not a match for Augustine with his one.' The 'judgment of a man who attributes anything to the 1 Novum Instrumentum, folio, 433. 2 Luther to Spalatin: Luther's Briefe. De Wette, No. xxii. 'human will' [which Jerome and Erasmus did] is one CHAP thing, the judgment of him who recognises nothing 'but grace' [which Augustine and Luther did] 'is quite A.D. 1516, ' another thing.'. "Nevertheless [continues Luther] 'I carefully keep this opinion to myself, lest I should 'play into the hands of his enemies. May God give ' him understanding in his own good time!"1 ple be Erasmus This is not the place to discuss the rights of the question between Luther and Erasmus. It is well, however, that by the preservation of these letters the fact is established to us, which as yet was unknown to Erasmus, that this Augustinian monk, as the result of Difference in princihard-fought mental struggle, had years before this irrevocably adopted and, if we may so speak, welded tween into his very being that Augustinian system of religious and convictions, a considerable portion of which Erasmus made no scruple in rejecting; that at the root of their religious thought there was a divergence in principle which must widen as each proceeded on his separate path-unknown as yet, let me repeat it, to Erasmus, but already fully recognised, though wisely concealed, by Luther. IV. THE EPISTOLÆ OBSCURORUM VIRORUM' (1516-17). In the meantime symptoms had appeared portending that a storm was brewing in another quarter against Erasmus. It was not perhaps to be wondered at that the monks should persist in regarding him as a renegade monk. His bold reply to the letter of Servatius, and the unsubdued tone in which he had answered the attack of Martin Dorpius, must have made the monastic 1 Luther an Joh. Lange: De Wette, No. xxix. p. 52. Luther. |