Lutheran Resistance to Tyranny

The Reformed owe a debt to their Lutheran brethren for articulating early on a Biblical theory of resistance to tyranny, as found in two particular works which have been shown to have influenced the Huguenot resistance theory of Theodore Beza, for example.

1) Von der Notwehr Unterricht, Nutzlich zu Lesen (Instruction Concerning Self-Defense, Necessary to Read) by Justus Menius (1547, with editing done by Philipp Melanchthon; 1547, 2nd. ed. by Melanchthon). The second edition, which was popular in its day, includes sections titled "Instruction Concerning Self-Defense," by Menius, "How Self-Defense is a God-Pleasing Work," and other sections dealing with both passive disobedience of unlawful commands, and active resistance, up to and including tyrannicide. First published during the 1546-1547 Schmalkaldic War, the violent conflict between forces of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the Protestant Schmalkaldic League, this treatise helped articulate the Lutheran grounds for resistance to the Emperor (the work was not limited to civil and political resistance though; it speaks to resistance to the head of household when he acts tyrannically as well). It built upon the earlier writings of Martin Luther and others who found grounds to resist higher authorities in Luther's Of Temporal Authority: to What Extent it Should be Obeyed (1523), for example. Melanchthon wrote, "In the Warning [to his Dear German People] and in other writings, Dr. Martin Luther declared that defense was just" (quoted by Luther D. Peterson, "Melanchthon on Resisting the Emperor: The Von der Notwehr Unterrichte of 1547," in Jerome Friedman, ed., Regnum, Religio et Ratio: Essays Presented to Robert M. Kingdon, p. 143). Not only did Melanchthon justify constitutional resistance by lesser magistrates to superior tyrants, but in the section on "Who may lead resistance?" he also left the door open to permit individual active resistance to tyranny on basis of natural law providing the right of self-defense to all (giving as noble examples of this Obediah who hid the priests from Queen Jezebel; William Tell; Thrasybulus, who led the resistance against the thirty tyrants of Athens; Pelopidas, who saved Thebes from the Spartans; and even the wife of the cruel tyrant Alexander Pheraeus, who killed her husband), while at the same time condemning "Beruff" (unjustified rebellion) "violence carried out without a calling...and intended to raise oneself up" (ibid, p. 141).

2) Though militarily, the Schmalkaldic War ended in defeat for the Protestant cause, the Reformation would not be crushed by force. The ensuing dissatisfaction with the 1548 Augsburg Interim would lead to the 1555 Peace of Augsburg, embedded the principle of Cuius regio, eius religio ("Whose realm, his religion"), the idea that the religion of the civil magistrate dictated the religion of his jurisdiction. Yet, in 1550, the Magdeburg Bekenntnis Confessio et Apologia Pastorum et Reliquorum Ministorum Ecclesiae Magdeburgensis, more commonly known today as the Magdeburg Confession, articulated the position of Lutheran pastors of Magdeburg, who refused to submit to the Augsburg Interim, which Emperor Charles V attempted to enforce militarily by besieging the city. The Confession was one of many tracts and pamphlets issued in defense of Lutheran freedoms, and the most influential. Although a complete published English translation of this document is lacking, it has been discussed by Robert M. Kingdon, "The First Expression of Theodore Beza's Political Ideas," Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 46 (1955); David Mark Whitford, Tyranny and Resistance: The Magdeburg Confession and the Lutheran Tradition; and John Witte, Jr., The Reformation of Rights: Law, Religion and Human Rights in Early Modern Calvinism. Whitford describes the document:

The Confession begins with a one-page "Short Summary of the Contents of this Book," followed by an 11-page "Introduction." The body of the treatise is divided into three sections. The first section (chapters 1-7) recapitulates the main doctrinal loci of the Augsburg Confession. The second section discusses resistance theory, and the third section provides a warning to those who oppose Magdeburg's actions.

The Confession emphasizes the duty of lesser civil magistrates to interpose, or resist the tyrannical conduct of higher magistrates, in defense of the people under their care.

We will show from Holy Scripture that if a higher magistrate undertakes by force to restore popish idolatry and to suppress of exterminate the pure teaching of the Holy Gospel, as in the present instance, then the lower god-fearing magistrate may defend himself and his subjects against such unjust force in order to preserve the true teaching, the worship of God together with body, life, goods, and honor. The powers that be are ordained of God to protect the good and punish the bad (Romans 13), but if they start to persecute the good, they are no longer ordained of God. There are to be sure degrees of tyranny and if a magistrate makes unjust war upon his subjects contrary to his plighted oath, they may resist, though they are not commanded to do so by God. But if a ruler is so demented as to attack God, then he is the very devil who employs mighty potentates in Church and State. When, for example, a prince or an emperor tampers with marriage against the dictates of natural law, then in the name of natural law and Scripture he may be resisted.

Praise be to God. Because He lives we also shall live and be exalted since now we suffer with Him and for His sake we are killed all the day long (Psalm 44).
...
If the high authority does not refrain from unjustly and forcibly persecuting not only the lives of their subjects but even more their rights under divine and natural law, and if the high authority does not desist from eradicating true doctrine and true worship of God, then the lower magistracy is required by God's divine command to attempt, together with their subjects, to stand up to such superiors as far as possible. The current persecution which we are suffering at the hands of our superiors is primarily persecution by which they attempt to suppress the Christian religion and the true worship of God and to reestablish the Pope's lies and abominable idolatry. Thus the Council and each and every Christian authority is obliged to protect themselves and their people against this.

This Confession was very influential in the thought of Theodore Beza, who wrote in his 1554 treatise Concerning Heretics that a "signal example of [interposition by lesser magistrates against superior tyranny] has been shown in our times by Magdeburg, that city on the Elbe." Later, in 1574, Beza describes his famous treatise on The Rights of Magistrates explicitly as a "'revision' or 'reprint' of that treatise 'published by those of Magdeburg in 1550 and now revised and augmented with several reasons and examples'" (Whitford, Ibid, p. 61). Whitford goes on to sum up the significance of this connection:

The connection between The Magdeburg Confession and Theodore Beza places the Confession at the center of the debate over political resistance in Reformation thought. The Magdeburg Confession is, therefore, one of the most important documents of the Reformation on political theology, and it played a key and positive role in the development of resistance theory.

Luther's Three Hours of Prayer

There is a well-known saying attributed to Martin Luther: "I have so much to do today that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer." The source of this saying is fuzzy, as it has been often quoted but not found in Luther's own writings. I have wondered about it for some time, but while reading Westminster divine John Arrowsmith's Armilla Catechetica: A Chain of Principles (1659, 1822), p. 143, I came across a reference to this anecdote, which cited a source.

Viet Dietrich (also known as Vitus Theodorus), the Nuremberg Reformer who was Martin Luther 's close friend, and who served as amanuensis both to Luther and Philipp Melanchthon (1506-1549), wrote a letter to Melanchthon dated June 30, 1530, which states:

Nullus abit dies, quin ut minimum tres horas, easque studiis aptissimas in orationibus ponat.

Arrowsmith elaborates:

[Luther], during his retirement in the castle at Coburga for the safety of his person, having then more time to spare for devotion than his many public employments had been wont to afford him, was no niggard of it: but (as one Vitus Theodorus, who then lived with him, informed Melancthon,) spent no less in prayer to God, then at least three hours every day, and those such hours as were fittest for study.*

* Here Arrowsmith cites the Latin text of Dietrich's June 30, 1530 letter to Melanchthon.

The quote widely attributed to Luther, it appears to me, is likely an extrapolation from this reference by Viet Dietrich in his letter to Philipp Melanchthon. While Luther may not have uttered the words repeated so often today, yet they do, it seems, accurately reflect the importance of prayer in his life, and his own specific practice to pray three hours a day, early in the day, at least while he resided at the Veste Coburg.

Incessant Bible Study

Thomas Murphy, Pastoral Theology: The Pastor in the Various Duties of His Office, pp. 110-115:

INCESSANT STUDY OF THE BIBLE.

This is a duty which must be placed amidst the very first of all the duties that devolve upon the pastor. We must come back to it again and again and again as we treat of his all-important calling. In that holy office he must study many things, but this most yea, more than all other things put together. We would endeavor to impress this point as strongly as possible. The minister must study the Bible for his own heart-culture ; he must study it for all his official duties ; he must study it until he grows to love the study ; he must study it until he gets his mind saturated with it ; he must study it to keep up freshness and variety in his preaching ; he must study it every day ; he must study it until his dying day.

The pastor may depend upon it that a thorough knowledge of the oracles of God would prove to be the right arm of his strength. It would give vigor to his faith. It would impart robustness to his Christian character. It would clothe his preaching with irresistible power. It would furnish him with the best preparation in his attendance upon the sick, the inquiring, the young, in ecclesiastical affairs and in every other branch of his work. What skill is to the mechanic, what eloquence is to the orator, what taste is to the artist, what wisdom is to the statesman, that, and still more necessary, is a profound knowledge of the Scriptures to the minister. All experience proves this to be so. From the very nature of the case this must make him strong ; without it, he cannot but be weak as an ambassador of God. The testimony of all devoted and successful pastors establishes this truth beyond a question.

A few sentences from the pen of that great and good man, Dr. James W. Alexander, will serve as specimens of what is reiterated thousands of times by those who have had the ripest experience : "Constant perusal and re-perusal of Scripture is the great preparation for preaching. You get good even when you know it not. This is one of the most observable differences between old and young theologians. Give attendance to reading." In another connection he says : "The liveliest preachers are those who are most familiar with the Bible without note or comment, and we frequently find them among men who have had no education better than that of the common school. It was this which gave such animation to the vivid books and discourses of the Puritans. As there is no poetry so rich and bold as that of the Bible, so he who daily makes this his study will, even on human principles, be awakened and acquire a striking manner of conveying his thoughts. The sacred books are full of fact, example and illustration, which, with copiousness and variety, will cluster around the truths which the man of God derives from the same source. One preacher gives us naked heads of theology ; they are true, scriptural and important, but they are uninteresting, especially when reiterated for the thousandth time in the same naked manner. Another gives us the same truths, but each of them brings in its train the retinue of scriptural example, history, a figure by way of illustration, and a variety hence arises which is perpetually becoming richer as the preacher goes more deeply into the mine of Scripture. There are some great preachers who, like Whitefield, do not appear to bestow great labor on the preparation of particular discourses, but it may be observed that these are always persons whose life is a study of the word. Each sermon is an outflowing from a fountain which is constantly full. The Bible is, after all, the one book of the preacher. He who is most familiar with it will become most like it, and this in respect to every one of its wonderful qualities, arid will bring forth from his treasury things new and old."

The minister who has laid hold, as a living fact, of this one thought of the pre-eminent importance of being deeply imbued both with the letter and the spirit of the word of God is already mighty for his work.

Look at the Bible. The pastor has to do with it at every point of his work. He must come to it in every thing he undertakes. He is nothing without it. It is all in all to him in his office. It is more to him than any than all other books that were ever penned. The Bible contains his credentials as an ambassador of Jesus Christ. It is the message which he is appointed to reiterate with all fervor to his fellow-men. It is the treasury from which he can ever draw the riches of divine truth. It is the Urim and Thummim to which he has constant access, and from which he can learn the mind of Jehovah with all clearness. It is the audience-chamber where he will be received into the presence of the Lord and hear words of more than earthly wisdom. It is the armory from which he can be clothed with the panoply of salvation. It is the sword of the Spirit before which no enemy can possibly stand. It is his book of instructions wherein the great duties of his office are clearly defined. The chief rules of his sacred art are here. There is nothing which it is essential for him to know but is revealed here either in express terms or in inferences which are easily studied out. It is a mine of sacred wealth for the clergyman, the abundance of which he can never exhaust. The deeper he goes, the richer and more unbounded will its treasures appear. Well was it said by Dr. W. E. Schenck : "That volume alone contains the warrant for the sacred office he bears. In it alone is found the record of his great commission as an ambassador of God. It alone authoritatively exhibits and defines the official duties he must perform. It alone tells him of the glorious rewards he may expect if he be found faithful. Nay, more, it contains the subject-matter for all his preaching and his other professional labors." It is a shame for a preacher not to be a master in the knowledge of the Book of books, which is everything to him.

It is well that we should strive to impress this great duty and privilege of the minister by the authority of eminent workers in the sacred office. Their experience and testimony should be deeply studied. " The study of the Bible is the special duty of every individual who would understand the truth of God and be prepared to make it known to others. Burnet, speaking of ministers in his own times, says, The capital error in men's preparing themselves for that function is that they study books more than themselves, and that they read divinity more in other books than in the Scriptures. This, it is to be feared, is as true now as it was then; and if so it must be attended, inevitably, with very injurious consequences both to the ministry and the Church. For as the Bible is the source of divine knowledge, so it is of spiritual strength, and every holy affection and purpose.

"Melanchthon recommended, as the first requisite in the study of theology, 'a familiarity with the text of the sacred Scriptures, and in order to this that they should be read daily, both morning and evening. The daily devotion of Luther to the sacred text is well known, and it was this that made him strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.'

"Dr. Campbell, in his treatise on systematic theology, says, Devoutly study the Scriptures themselves if you would understand their doctrines in singleness of heart. The only assistance which I would recommend are those writings in which there can be no tendency to warp your judgment. It is the serious and frequent reading of the divine oracles, accompanied with fervent prayer; it is the diligent study of the languages in which they were written ; it is the knowledge of those histories and antiquities to which they allude.

"President Edwards, as the result of his own experience, said, I find that it would be very much to my advantage to be thoroughly acquainted with the Scriptures. When I am reading doctrinal books or books of controversy, I can proceed with abundantly more confidence and can see upon what foundation I stand.

It has been truthfully said : "When scholars furnish themselves with stores of other writers, besides the Scriptures, and being little conversant in the Scriptures draw the Scriptures to the authors whom they most af-feet, and not their authors to the Scriptures, their divinity proves but humanity, and their ministry speaks to the brain, but not to the conscience, of the hearer. But he that digs all the treasures of his knowledge and the ground of all religion out of the Scriptures, and makes use of other authors, not for ostentation of himself, nor for the ground of his faith, nor for the principal ornament of his ministry, but for the better searching out of the deep wisdom of the Scriptures, such an one believes what he teaches, not by a human credulity from his author, but by a divine faith from the word. And because he believes therefore he speaks, and speaking from faith in his own heart, he speaks much more powerfully to the begetting and strengthening of faith in the hearer."

First Reformed Systematic Theology

Many, with good reason, look to John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536) as the first and chief systematic treatment of Reformed theology. But it is important to realize that he drew upon earlier systematic theological works by other Reformers, which are not to be forgotten.

Philipp Melanchthon is credited with publishing the first Protestant systematic exposition of theology in 1521, Loci communes theologici.

In 1524-1525, while in Montbeliard, William Farel wrote and published the first Reformed systematic theology in French, Summaire briefue declaration daucuns lieux fort necessaires a ung chascun Chrestien pour mettre sa confiance en Dieu et ayder son prochain.

Also in 1525, Ulrich Zwingli published Commentarius de Vera et Falsa Religione.

And in 1529, François Lambert of Avignon, the author of the first commentary on Revelation by a Reformer (1528), published Somme chrestienne.