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TOPIC: Luther, Martin - Table Talks (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 23. Of The Fathers of the Church
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OF THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH
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DXXV.
I will not presume to criticize too closely the writings of the Fathers,
seeing they are received at the church, and have great applause, for then I
should be held an apostate; but whoso reads Chrysostom, will find he
digresses from the chief points, and proceeds to other matter, saying
nothing, or very little, of what pertains to the business. When I was
expounding the Epistle to the Hebrews, and turned to what Chrysostom had
written thereupon, I found nothing to the purpose; yet I believe that he at
that time, as being the chief rhetorician, had many hearers, though he
taught without profit; for the chief office of a preacher is to teach
uprightly, and diligently to look to the chief points and grounds whereon he
stands, and so instruct and teach the hearers that they understand aright,
and may be able to say: this is well taught. When this is done, he may avail
himself of rhetoric to adorn his subject and admonish the people.
DXXXVI.
Behold what great darkness is in the books of the Fathers concerning
faith; yet if the article of justification be darkened, it is impossible to
smother the grossest errors of mankind. St Jerome, indeed, wrote upon
Matthew, upon the Epistles to Galatians and Titus; but, alas! very coldly.
Ambrose wrote six books upon the first book of Moses, but they are very
poor. Augustine wrote nothing to the purpose concerning faith; for he was
first roused up and made a man by the Pelagians, in striving against them. I
can find no exposition upon the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians,
wherein anything is taught pure and aright. O what a happy time have we now
in regard to the purity of the doctrine; but alas! we little esteem it.
After the Fathers came the pope, and with his mischievous traditions and
human ordinances, like a breaking water-cloud and deluge, overflowed the
church, snared consciences, touching eating of meat, friars hoods, masses,
etc., so that daily he brought abominable errors into the church of Christ;
and to serve his own turn, took hold on St Augustine's sentence, where he
says, Evangelio non crederem, etc. The asses could not see what occasioned
Augustine to utter that sentence, whereas he spoke it against the
Manicheans, as much as to say: I believe you not, for ye are damned
heretics, but I believe and hold with the church, the spouse of Christ,
which cannot err.
DXXVII.
Epiphanius compiled a history of the church long before Jerome; his
writings are good and profitable, and, if separated from dissentious
agruments, worth printing.
DXXVIII.
I much like the hymns and spiritual songs of Prudentius; he was the
best of the Christian poets; if he had lived in the time of Virgil, he would
have been extolled above Horace. I wish the verses of Prudentius were read
in schools, but schools are now become heathenish, and the Holy Scripture is
banished from them, and sophisticated through philosophy.
DXXIX.
We must read the Fathers cautiously, and lay them in the gold balance,
for they often stumbled and went astray, and mingled in their books many
monkish things. Augustine had more work and labor, to wind himself out of
the Father's writings, then he had with the heretics. Gregory expounds the
five pounds mentioned in the Gospel, which the husbandman gave to his
servants to put to use, to be the five senses, which the beasts also
possess. The two pounds, he construes to be the reason and understanding.
DXXX.
The more I read the books of the Fathers, the more I find myself
offended; for they were but men, and, to speak the truth, with all their
repute and authority, undervalued the books and writings of the sacred
apostles of Christ. The papists were not ashamed to say, What is the
Scripture? we must read the holy Fathers and teachers, for they drew and
sucked the honey out of the Scripture. As if God's Word were to be
understood and conceived by none but by themselves, whereas the heavenly
Father says: "Him shall ye hear," who in the gospel taught most plainly in
parables and similitudes.
DXXXI.
Augustine was the ablest and purest of all the doctors, but he could
not of himself bring back things to their original condition, and he often
complains that the bishops, with their traditions and ordinances, troubled
the church more than did the Jews with their laws.
DXXXII.
Faithful Christians should heed only the embassy of our blessed Saviour
Christ, and what he says. All they who alter and construe the Gospel through
human authority, power, and repute, act very unchristianlike and against
God. No temporal potentate allows his ambassador to exceed his instructions,
not in one word; yet we, in this celestial and divine embassage and
legation, will be so presumptuous as to add and diminish to and from our
heavenly instructions, according to our own vain conceits and self-will.
DXXXIII.
I am persuaded that if at this time, St Peter, in person, should preach
all the articles of Holy Scripture, and only deny the pope's authority,
power, and primacy, and say that the pope is not the head of all
Christendom, they would cause him to be hanged. Yea, if Christ himself were
again on earth, and should preach, without all doubt the pope would crucify
him again. Therefore let us expect the same treatment; but better is it to
build upon Christ, than upon the pope. If, from my heart, I did not believe
that after this life there were another, then I would sing another song, and
lay the burthen on another's neck.
DXXXIV.
Lyra's Commentaries upon the Bible are worthy of all praise. I will
order them diligently to be read, for they are exceeding good, especially on
the historical part of the Old Testament. Lyra is very profitable to him
that is well versed in the New Testament. The commentaries of Paulus and
Simigerus are very cold; they may well be omitted and left out, if Lyra
should be reprinted.
DXXXV.
Jerome should not be numbered among the teachers of the church, for he
was a heretic; yet I believe that he is saved through faith in Christ. He
speaks not of Christ, but merely carries his name in his mouth.
DXXXVI.
The Terminists, among whom I was, are sectaries in the high schools;
they oppose the Thomists, the Scotists, and the Albertists; they are also
called Occamists, for Occam, their founder. They are of the newest sect, and
are not strongest in Paris.
The question with them was, whether the word humanitas means a general
humanity, residing in every human creature, as Thomas and others hold. The
Ocamists and Terminists say: It is not in general, but it is spoken in
particular of every human creature; as a picture of a human creature
signifies every human creature.
They are called Terminists, because they speak of a thing in its own
proper words, and do not apply them after a strange sort. With a carpenter
we must speak in his terms, and with such words as are used in his craft, as
a chisel, as axe. Even so we must let the words of Christ remain, and speak
of the sacraments in suis teminis, with such words as Christ used and spake;
as "Do this," must not be turned into "Offer this;" and the word corpus must
not signify both kinds, as the papists tear and torment the words, and
willfully wrest them against the clear text.
DXXXVII.
The master of sentences, Peter Lombard, was a very diligent man, and of
a high understanding; he wrote many excellent things. If he had wholly given
himself to the Holy Scriptures, he had been indeed a great and a leading
doctor of the church; but he introduced into his books unprofitable
questions, sophisticating and mingling all together. The school divines were
fine and delicate wits, but they lived not in such times as we. They got so
far that they taught mankind were not complete, pure, or sound, but wounded
in part, yet they said people by their own power, without grace, could
fulfill the law; though when they had obtained grace, they were able more
easily to accomplish the law, of their own proper power.
Such and the life horrible things they taught; but they neither saw nor
felt Adam's fall, nor that the law of God is a spiritual law, requiring a
complete and full obedience inwardly and outwardly, both in body and soul.
DXXXVIII.
Gabriel Biel wrote a book upon the canon in the mass, which at that
time I held for the best; my heart bled when I read it. I still keep those
books which tormented me. Scotus wrote very well upon the Magister
sententiarum, and diligently essayed to teach upon those matters. Occam was
an able and sensible man.