Luther - Works of Martin Luther Vol. 6 - Righteousness is Love

20The Formula missae is a quite different document. It is Luther’s best andoutstanding liturgical writing. Issued but a few months after the release ofthe Von ordenung, it reveals a Luther who has had to think these mattersover seriously and carefully and who is now ready to write about them inthat spirit and at length.The movement for liturgical reform has become widespread. Section aftersection is attempting an “Evangelical Mass,” with many varieties resultingand many spirits evident. Thomas Munzer has added his contribution (not apoor one at that! — but from the Reformer’s point of view a contaminatedsource). Luther’s friends are insistent that he declare himself and givedirection. The call for help, for definite direction, is insistent; thoseespousing the Reformation want the reformed Mass, but they want it as theFaith alone will dress it. f4 The Formula missae is the answer to this.It is a conservative, helpful, constructive document. Here is revealed thesometime son of the Church treading his new found Way but still valuingthe treasures of his heritage, purposing to cleanse it of the impure anduseless and to glorify the worship of God with that in this heritage whichalways has been and still is expressive of the age-old experience ofChristendom. That he alludes to the genesis of certain rites or to certainliturgical antiquities will at least quiet the assertion that he was altogetherwithout historical knowledge of these matters. There are criticisms whichcompared with others in other writings are quite mild; there are suggesteddepartures from current practice; but for both criticism and departure thereis apparent good reason. These are harmonious with the evangelicaldoctrine, and, yet, they are expressive of historic continuity: the very thingLuther quite evidently set out to prove not only possible but as being trulyindicative of every edifying rite and practice. He again writes about unity ofpractice and the Christian’s liberty as related thereto. Of course there areweak spots and not all that he has suggested is worth while, but,nevertheless, this writing is the high point reached in his liturgical activities.It is a pity he was not satisfied to stop with this, for his last major liturgicalwriting, the Deutsche Messe, rivaled the conservative spirit of the Formulaand nourished another “tendency” which found living strength and its“authority” for existence in the Messe.The Deutsche Messe arrived three years after the two foregoingdocuments. If one were looking for a descriptive phrase that woulddistinguish it, in contrast with the other conservative writings, this is