The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

Walch's Edition of his works, X., 2637. In regard to this, the following are
the facts:
1. The passage referred to is from a letter of Luther, written from
Coburg, July 9th, 1530, in reply to an Evangelical pastor, Henry Genesius,
who had consulted him in regard to the Baptism of a Jewish girl. It will
be noted from the date that the letter was written a few months after the
issue of the Catechisms, in which it has been pretended, as we shall see,
that he taught the necessity of immersion.
2. The letter given in Walch, is also in the Leipzig edition of Luther
(XXII., 371), and is not in either edition in the original language, but is a
translation, and that from a defective copy of the original. The original
Latin is given in De Wette's edition of Luther's Briefe (IV., 8), and
contains a most important part of a sentence which is not found in the
German translation. The letter in Walch cannot, therefore, be cited in
evidence, for it is neither the original, nor a reliable translation of it.
3. The whole letter shows that the main point of inquiry was not as to
whether the girl should be baptized in this or that mode, but what
precautions decency demanded during the baptism, provided it were done
by immersion.
4. Luther says: "IT WOULD PLEASE ME, therefore, that she
should...modestly have the water POURED UPON HER (Mihi placeret,
ut,...verecunde perfunderetur), or, if she sit in the water up to her neck, that
her head should be immersed with a trine immersion." (Caput ejus trina
immersione immergeretur.) 5. An immersionist is one who contends that
Baptism must be administered by immersion. The passage quoted is
decisive that Luther did not think Baptism must be so administered. He
represents it as pleasing to him, best of all, that the girl should have the
water applied to her by pouring; or that, if she were immersed, greater
precautions, for the sake of decency, should be observed, than were usual
in the Church of Rome. It is demonstrated by this very letter, that
LUTHER WAS NOT AN IMMERSIONIST.
6. In suggesting the two modes of Baptism, Luther was simply
following the Ritual of the Romish Church. In the