The booklet he dedicated to that zealous patron of the Reformation,
Landgrave Philip of Hesse. In it his intention is to teach “how to
fight with a good conscience.” He points out how the Emperor, as a
secular ruler, must, agreeably with the office conferred on him by
God, protect his subjects against the Turks, as against murderers
and robbers, with the secular sword, which, however, has nothing to
do with the faith. There were two who must wage the war, Christian
and Charles; but Christian’s duty was merely that of the faithful
everywhere who would pray for the success of the campaign; this was
all that the believers, as such, had to do; Charles would fight,
because the example of Charles the Great would encourage him to
bear the sword bravely, but only against the Turks as robbers and
disturbers of the peace; it would be no Crusade, such as had been
undertaken against the infidel in the foolish days of old. Amongst
the most powerful pages of the work are those in which, regardless
of flattery, he impresses on the German Princes the need of union,
of sacrifice of private interests and of obedience to the guidance
of the Emperor, without which it was useless to hope for anything
in the present critical condition of the Empire. He scourges with a
like severity certain faults into which Germans were prone to fall
when engaged in warfare, viz. to under-estimate the strength of the
enemy, and to neglect following up their victories; instead of this,
they would sit down and tipple until they again found themselves in
straits.[206]
It does not, however, seem that these words of Luther’s on behalf of
the war against the Turks raised any great enthusiasm among the people.
He again took up his pen, and this time more open-heartedly, when,
on October 14, the hour of Vienna’s deliverance came and the last
assault had been happily repulsed. The result was his “Heer-Predigt
widder den Türcken” addressed to all the Germans. Here he sought to
instruct them from Scripture concerning the Turks and the approaching
Last Day. In stirring, homely words he exhorted them to rise and lend
their assistance, pointing out that whoever fell in the struggle died
a martyr. He fired the enthusiasm of his readers by even quoting the
examples of the women and maidens in olden Germany. He also dwelt on
the need of preserving the faith in captivity should it be the lot of
any of the combatants to be taken prisoner, and even exhorted those who
might be sold as slaves not to prove unfaithful by running away from
their lawful masters. He consoled his readers at the same time with the
thought, to which he ever attached such importance, that, after all, in
Turkey the devil did not rage nearly so furiously against Christians
as the devil at home, i.e. the Pope, who was forcing them to deny
Christ.[207]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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