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

the 'Confessio Catholica,' in which the concessions of Romish writers are
employed in defence of the truth, 69 he answers in full all the calumnies
directed against the life, and the attacks on the doctrines of Luther. He
shows that Luther was actuated by no blind fury against the Church of
Rome, but distinguished in it the precious from the vile, and that he was an
instrument of God endowed with extraordinary qualities for an
extraordinary work. In showing this, he cites at large the opinions of
Mellerstadt, Staupitz, the Emperor Maximilian, Von Hutten, Erasmus,
Frederick, Elector of Saxony, Langius, Fisher 70 (Bishop of Rochester and
Chancellor of the University of Cambridge), who afterwards wrote against
Luther, Mosellanus, Cellarius, Ulner, Podusca, Phaenicius, Schirner,
Rosdialovinus, Margaret, Archduchess of Austria, Emser, Kigelin, Masius,
and Severus. 71 These persons were all in the Church of Rome at the time
that these favorable testimonies were given. Portion by portion is taken up
by Gerhard, and disposed of with most eminent judgment, sustained by
incredible learning.
Hagenbach.
"It may be said," is the remark of Hagenbach, "that Martin Luther
became emphatically the reformer of the German Church, and thus the
reformer of a great part of the Universal Church, by his eminent personal
character and heroic career, by the publication of his theses, by sermons
and expositions of Scripture, by disputations and bold controversial
writings, by numerous letters and circular epistles, by advice and warning,
by intercourse with persons of all classes of society, by pointed maxims
and hymns, but especially by his translation of the Sacred Scriptures into
the German language. 72
69 Doctrina Catholica et Evangelica, quam Ecclesiae Augustanse Confessioni addictse profitentur."- From the title of
the "Confessio Cathol., Frankfurti et Lipsise, 1679," folio.
70 In a letter to Erasmus he commends Luther highly, and among other things speaks of him as "Scripturarum ad
miraculum usque peritum."
71 Preceptor of Ferdinand, author of the distich,
"Japeti de gente prior majorve Luthero
Nemo fuit, nec habent secla futura parem." -Conf. Cathol., p. 58 seq.
72 Compendium of the History of Doctrines, by K. R. Hagenbach, Dr. and Professor of Theology in the University
of Basle, translated by Carl W. Buch, Edinburgh, Clark, 1847, vol. ii., 156, (Am. ed., edited by Dr. H. B. Smith,
1862.) Hagenbach's work has an occasional slip. An illustration lies just under our eye: "Nor did the authors of the
Symbolical Books differ from Luther, on Transubstantiation." Very true, but half of Hagenbach's proof is a citation
from the Smalcald Articles, i. e. he proves that Luther did not differ from Luther.