Martin Luther Collection: Luther, Martin - Table Talks: 37. Of Allegories

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Martin Luther Collection: Luther, Martin - Table Talks: 37. Of Allegories



TOPIC: Luther, Martin - Table Talks (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 37. Of Allegories

Other Subjects in this Topic:

OF ALLEGORIES



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DCCLXII.



Allegories and spiritual significations, when applied to faith, and that

seldom are laudable; but when they are drawn from the life and conversation,

they are dangerous, and, when men make too many of them pervert the doctrine

of faith. Allegories are fine ornaments, but not of proof. We are not

lightly to make use of them, except the principal cause be first

sufficiently proved, with strong grounds and arguments, as with St Paul in

the fourth chapter to Galatians. The body is the logic, but allegory the

rhetoric; now rhetoric, which adorns and enlarges a thing with words, is of

no value without logic, which roundly and briefly comprehends a matter. When

with rhetoric men will make many words, without ground, it is but a trimmed

thing, a carved idol.





DCCLXIII.



An allegory is when a thing is signified and understood otherwise than

as the words express. Of all languages, none is so rich in allegories as the

Hebrew. The German tongue is full of metaphors, as when we say: He hangs the

clock according to the wind: - Katherine von Borna is the morning star of

Wittenbert, and so on. These are metaphors, that is, figurative words.

Allegories are, as when Christ commands that one should wash another's feet,

of baptizing, of the Sabbath, etc.

We must not hold and understand allegories as they sound; as what

Daniel says, concerning the beast with ten horns; this we must understand to

be spoken of the Roman empire. Even so, circumcision in the New Testament is

an allegory, but in the Old testament it is no allegory. The New Testament

frames allegories out of the Old, as it makes two nations out of Abraham's

sons.





DCCLXIV.





The legend of St George has a fine spiritual signification, concerning

temporal government and policy. The virgin signifies the policy; she is

vexed and persecuted by the dragon, the devil, who goes about to devour her;

now he plagues her with hunger and dearth, then with pestilence, now with

wars, till at length a good prince or potentate comes, who helps and

delivers her, and restores her again to her right.





DCCLXV.





To play with allegories in Christian doctrine, is dangerous. The words,

now and then, sound well and smoothly, but they are to no purpose. They

serve well for such preachers that have not studied much, who know not

rightly how to expound the histories and texts, whose leather is too short,

and will not stretch. These resort to allegories, wherein nothing is taught

certainly on which a man may build; therefore, we should accustom ourselves

to remain by the clear and pure text. Philip Melancthon asked Luther what

the allegory and hidden signification was, that the eagle, during the time

he broods and sits upon the eggs, hunts not abroad; and that he keeps but

one young thrusting any others out of the nest. Likewise, why the ravens

nourish not their young, but forsake them when they are yet bare, and

without feathers? Luther answered: "The eagle signifies a monarch, who alone

will have the government and suffer none besides himself to be his equal.

The ravens are the harsh and hard-hearted swine and belly-gods, the

papists."





DCCLXVI.





The allegory of a sophist is always screwed; it crouches and bows

itself like a snake, which is never straight, whether she go, creep, or lie

still; only when she is dead, she is straight enough.





DCCLXVII.



When I was a monk, I was much versed in spiritual significations and

allegories. `Twas all art with me; but afterwards, when through the epistle

to the Romans, I had come a little to the knowledge of Christ, I saw that

all allegories wee vain, except those of Christ. Before that time I turned

everything into allegory, even the lowest wants of our nature. But

afterwards I reflected upon historical facts. I saw how difficult a matter

it was for Gideon to have fought the enemy, in the manner shown by the

Scripture; there was no allegory there or spiritual signification; the Holy

Ghost simply says, that Faith only, with three hundred men, beat so great a

multitude of enemies. St Jerome and Origen, God forgive them, were the cause

that allegories were held in such esteem. But Origen altogether is not worth

one word of Christ. Now I have shaken off all these follies, and my best art

is to deliver the Scripture in the simple sense; therein is life, strength,

and doctrine; all other methods are nothing but foolishness, let them shine

how they will. `Twas thus Munzer troped with the third chapter of John:

"Unless one be born again of water," and said: Water signifies tribulation;

but St Augustine gave us the true rule, that figures and allegories prove

nothing.





DCCLXVIII.



Few of the legends are pure; the legends of the martyrs are least

corrupted, who proved their faith by the testimony of their blood. The

legends of the hermits, who dwell in solitudes, are abominable, full of

lying miracles and fooleries, touching moderation, chastity, and nurture. I

hold in consideration the saints whose lives were not marked by any

particular circumstances, who, in fact, lived like other people, and did not

seek to make themselves noted.





DCCLXIX.



In the legend of the virgin Tecla, who, as they say, was baptized by St

Paul, `tis said: "she awakened in him carnal desire." Ah! loving Paul, thou

hadst another manner of thorn in thy flesh than carnal. The friars, who live

at their ease, and jollity, dream, according to their licentious

cogitations, that St Paul was plagued with the same tribulations as

themselves.





DCCLXX.





The legend of St Christopher is no history, but a fiction composed by

the Greeks, a wise, learned, and imaginative people, in order to show what

life that of a true Christian should be. They figure him a great, tall and

strong man, who bears the child Jesus upon his shoulders, as the name

Christopher indicates; but the child was heavy, so that he who carries him

is constrained to bend under the burden. He traverses a raging and

boisterous sea, the world, whose waves beat upon him, namely, tyrants, and

factions, and the devil, who would fain bereave him of soul and life; but he

supports himself by a great tree, as upon a staff; that is, God's Word. On

the other side of the sea stands an old man, with a lantern, in which burns

a candle; this means the writings of the prophets. Christopher directs his

steps thither, and arrives safely on shore, that is, at everlasting life. At

his side is a basket, containing fish and bread; this signifies that God

will here on earth nourish the bodies of his Christians, amid the

persecutions, crosses and misfortunes which they must endure, and will not

suffer them to die of hunger, as the world would have them. `Tis a fine

Christian poem, and so is the legend of St George; George, in the Greek,

means a builder, that builds edifices justly and with regularity, and who

resists and drives away the enemies that would assault and damage them.





DCCLXXI.



`Tis one of the devil's proper plagues that we have no good legends of

the saints, pure and true. Those we have are stuffed so full of lies, that,

without heavy labor, they cannot be corrected. The legend of St Catherine is

contrary to all the Roman history; for Maxentius was drowned in the Tiber at

Rome, and never came to Alexandria, but Maximian had been there, as we read

in Eusebius, and after the time of Jusius Caesar there had been no king in

Egypt. He that disturbed Christians with such lies, was doubtless a

desperate wretch, who surely has been plunged deep in hell. Such

monstrosities did we believe in popedom, but then we understood them not.

Give God thanks, ye that are freed and delivered from them and from still

more ungodly things.