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

Archdeacon Hare.
Next to the Milners, 75 who were the first English writers who gave a
large and just view of Luther's character and Luther's work, is to be placed
Archdeacon Hare, who in a note to his "Mission of the Comforter," a note
which grew into a volume, vindicated Luther against "his recent English
assailants." 76 First of these is Hallam; then follow Newman, Ward, and Dr.
Mill. The last reply is to Sir William Hamilton, who has left an indelible
disgrace upon his namely the manner and measure of his attack upon
Luther. He has largely drawn his material from secondary sources,
wholly unworthy of credit, and has been betrayed into exhibitions of
ignorance so astounding as to excite suspicion that Sir William was rather
a large reader than a thorough scholar. His fierceness of polemic, which his
greatest admirers lament, was never more manifest nor more inexcusable
than it is here. Archdeacon Hare's vindication is everywhere successful,
and not unfrequently overwhelming. He has won for himself the right of
being listened to respectfully, even reverently, in his estimate of Luther: 77
"As he has said of St. Paul's words, his own are not dead words, but living
creatures, and have hands and feet. It no longer surprises us that this man
who wrote and spoke thus, although no more than a poor monk, should
have been mightier than the Pope, and the Emperor to boot, with all their
hosts, ecclesiastical and civil--that the rivers of living water should have
swept half Germany, and in the course of time the chief part of Northern
Europe, out of the kingdom of darkness into the region of Evangelical
light. No day in spring, when life seems bursting from every bud, and
gushing from every pore, is fuller of life than his pages; and if they are not
without the strong breezes
75 Hist. of Church of Christ, by Joseph Milner, with add. by Is. Milner, Lend. (1819) 1847, 4 vols. 8vo.
76 Vindication of Luther, 2d ed., Lond., 1855.
77 Mission of the Comforter, from 2d Lond. ed., Boston, 1854, pp. 281, 402, 403.