Luther Examined and Reexamined: A Review of Catholic Criticism and a Plea for RevaluationDau, W. H. T. (William Herman Theodore)
Religion
Luther Examined and Reexamined: A Review of Catholic Criticism and a Plea for Revaluation
Dau, W. H. T. (William Herman Theodore)
Luther, Martin, 1483-1546
"2. When this had been done, no such tumult and hellish rumbling was
heard any more that day. However, during the following night, at the
place where Martin Luther's corpse had been buried, there was heard by
everybody in the community a much greater confusion than the first time.
The people arose and flocked together in great fear and terror. At
daybreak they went to open the grave where the wicked body of Luther had
been placed. When the grave was opened, you could clearly see that there
was no body, neither flesh nor bone, nor any clothes. But such a
sulphuric stench rose from the grave that all who were standing around
the grave turned sick. On account of this miracle many have reformed
their lives by returning to the holy Christian faith, to the honor,
praise, and glory of Jesus Christ, and to the strengthening and
confirmation of His holy Christian Church, which is a pillar of truth."
Luther appended the following comment to this pious document:
"And I, Martinus Luther, D., do by these indentures acknowledge and
testify that I have received this angry fiction concerning my death on
the twenty-first day of March, and that I have read it with considerable
pleasure and joy, except the blasphemous portion of the document in
which this lie is attributed to the exalted majesty of God. Otherwise I
felt quite tickled on my knee-cap and under my left heel at this
evidence how cordially the devil and his minions, the Pope and the
papists, hate me. May God turn them from the devil!
"However, if it is decreed that theirs is a sin unto death, and that my
prayer is in vain, then may God grant that they fill up their measure
and write nothing else but such books for their comfort and joy. Let
them run their course; they are on the right track; they want to have it
so. Meanwhile I want to know how they are going to be saved, and how
they will atone for and revoke all their lies and blasphemies with which
they have filled the world." (21b, 3376 f.)
Similar, even more grotesque tales have been served the faithful by
Catholic writers. The star production of this kind was published years
ago in the _Ohio-Waisenfreund_. It related that horrible and uncanny
signs had accompanied Luther's death. Weird shrieks and noises were
heard, devils were flying about in the air; the heavens were shrouded in
a pall of gloom. When the funeral cortege started from Eisleben, a vast
flock of ravens had gathered and accompanied the corpse croaking
incessantly and uttering dismal cries all the way to Wittenberg, etc.,
etc.
These crude stories have now been censored out of existence. Catholics
nowadays prefer to lie in a more refined and cultured manner about
Luther's death: Luther committed suicide; he was found hanging from his
bedpost one morning.
Comment is unnecessary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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