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From Here to Forever
superstitious trembled before the decree of the pope, and many felt
that life was too dear to be risked. Was the Reformer’s work about
to close?
Luther was fearless still. With terrible power he flung back upon
Rome herself the sentence of condemnation. In the presence of a
crowd of citizens of all ranks Luther burned the pope’s bull. He said,
“A serious struggle has just begun. Hitherto I have been only playing
with the pope. I began this work in God’s name; it will be ended
without me, and by His might. ... Who knows if God has not chosen
and called me, and if they ought not to fear that, by despising me,
they despise God Himself? ...”
“God never selected as a prophet either the high priest or any
other great personage; but ordinarily He chose low and despised
men, once even the shepherd Amos. In every age, the saints have
had to reprove the great, kings, princes, priests, and wise men, at
the peril of their lives. ... I do not say that I am a prophet; but I say
that they ought to fear precisely because I am alone and that they
are many. I am sure of this, that the word of God is with me, and
that it is not with them.
Yet it was not without a terrible struggle with himself that Luther
decided upon a final separation from the church: “Oh, how much
pain it has caused me, though I had the Scriptures on my side, to
justify it to myself that I should dare to make a stand alone against
the pope, and hold him forth as antichrist! How many times have I
not asked myself with bitterness that question which was so frequent
on the lips of the papists: ‘Art thou alone wise? Can everyone else
be mistaken? How will it be, if, after all, it is thyself who art wrong,
and who art involving in thy error so many souls, who will then be
eternally damned?’ ‘Twas so I fought with myself and with Satan,
till Christ, by His own infallible word, fortified my heart against
these doubts.’
A new bull appeared, declaring the Reformer’s final separation
from the Roman Church, denouncing him as accursed of Heaven,
[90]
and including in the same condemnation all who should receive his
doctrines.
28
Ibid., bk. 6, ch. 10.
29
Martyn, pp. 372, 373.