Chapter XII
CHAPTER XII: CONCERNING THE ATTACKS OF THE PAPISTS AGAINST OUR DOCTRINE OF THE GOSPEL, ITS USE AND ABUSE, WITH THE DEFINITION OF THE GOSPEL ADDED
Attacks against the doctrine of the Gospel.
§ 127. So that is the doctrine of our churches concerning the Gospel [evangelium]. Because of it, some call our churches “Evangelical,” and this is so hateful to the Romanists that they do not refrain from reviling us. The Council of Trent makes the accusation against us: “With great contention against the Catholic Church we declare that that confidence” (from the Gospel) “is removed from all piety.” Hadrianus Jungius (De doctr. et moribus evang., p. 5): “This doctrine is rightly called ‘the Gospel’ [evangelium] by its defenders and supporters, whose first instigator in this century was Luther, from which he wanted his followers to be called ‘Evangelicals.’ Let us be called adversaries of this Gospel. Furthermore, if this good news is to be so called, and not rather ‘bad news,’ let he himself who first brought it to light confess that it has come not from Christ but from Satan.” He tries to show that the Gospel of Luther is the source and cause of many wicked crimes.
Franciscus Turrianus (De ecclesia) writes in the same fashion: “Luther’s Gospel is Germanic and, as it were, a fifth gospel.”
Here must also be assigned the virulent arguments of Bellarmine (De justif., bk. 4, ch. 1): “If the Gospel requires no condition of obedience but is content with faith alone, then surely he who will do nothing good will be living in harmony with the Gospel. The life and behavior of Lutherans are very corrupt. Therefore they teach that good works are unnecessary.”
In his preface to the Smalcald Articles, Dr. Luther tells of a professor who was sent by the French to Wittenberg who openly said that his king had been quite convinced that “among us there is no church, no government, no marriage, but we all live promiscuously like pigs, each as he chooses.”1 In the diet held at Augsburg in 1530, the Papist parasites kept trying to convince His Highness, the Emperor Charles V, and the rest of the estates of the empire that “in our churches discipline and the mortification of the flesh are simply forbidden.” For this reason Alfonsus, chancellor of the emperor, a Spaniard, kept saying to Melanchthon at that diet: “Philipp, the rumor which has been spread in Spain about you is far different from what we know from your confession. Many have convinced us that you deny the Trinity, that you speak impiously about Christ and Mary, that you corrupt the sacraments, that you administer the Lord’s Supper in the fashion of a secular feast, that you hold the political system in contempt, that you legitimize lust.”
Johannes à Daventria writes (Refutatio Augustanae confessionis): “The Lutherans claim that they are truly and fully using their Christian liberty if they never afflict their flesh, if they never fast, if they stuff themselves beyond measure and beyond the powers of nature and give themselves great bellies with all kinds of foods, even on feast days.” See also Andreas Fabricius (Harmon., p. 435).