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The Great Controversy
pontiff an inspiration descended in unbroken line from the apostles,
and unchangeable through all time, gives ample opportunity for every
species of extravagance and corruption to be concealed under the
sanctity of the apostolic commission. The inspiration claimed by
Munzer and his associates proceeded from no higher source than the
vagaries of the imagination, and its influence was subversive of all
authority, human or divine. True Christianity receives the word of
God as the great treasure house of inspired truth and the test of all
inspiration.
Upon his return from the Wartburg, Luther completed his trans-
lation of the New Testament, and the gospel was soon after given to
the people of Germany in their own language. This translation was
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received with great joy by all who loved the truth; but it was scornfully
rejected by those who chose human traditions and the commandments
of men.
The priests were alarmed at the thought that the common people
would now be able to discuss with them the precepts of God’s word,
and that their own ignorance would thus be exposed. The weapons of
their carnal reasoning were powerless against the sword of the Spirit.
Rome summoned all her authority to prevent the circulation of the
Scriptures; but decrees, anathemas, and tortures were alike in vain.
The more she condemned and prohibited the Bible, the greater was the
anxiety of the people to know what it really taught. All who could read
were eager to study the word of God for themselves. They carried it
about with them, and read and reread, and could not be satisfied until
they had committed large portions to memory. Seeing the favor with
which the New Testament was received, Luther immediately began the
translation of the Old, and published it in parts as fast as completed.
Luther’s writings were welcomed alike in city and in hamlet.
“What Luther and his friends composed, others circulated. Monks,
convinced of the unlawfulness of monastic obligations, desirous of
exchanging a long life of slothfulness for one of active exertion, but too
ignorant to proclaim the word of God, traveled through the provinces,
visiting hamlets and cottages, where they sold the books of Luther and
his friends. Germany soon swarmed with these bold colporteurs.”—
Ibid., b. 9, ch. 11.
These writings were studied with deep interest by rich and poor, the
learned and the ignorant. At night the teachers of the village schools