The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-04-23
THE PASSING OF MARTIN LUTHER.

When Ettienne LIE Rogue toured France in 1893
to deliver his notorious lecture in laudation of
Pontius PLATE, who decreed the Crucifxion of
Jesus Christ, he was, in many of the larger centers
of population, where vice abounds vociferously ap
plauded So when Dr. Rhys R. Lloyd, Welshman
from Chicago, eulogized Martin Luther in Barratt
hall, this city, Wednesday evening, he had ap-
preciative audience that gave him and his lecture
generous encouragement.
1t is only among those who are ignorant of the
times of the so-caled Reformation that any man
who has earned reputation for learning and hopes
to retain it dares now to speak of Luther as
clean man. or a self-respecting one. But there is
a class of men in modern society to whom Luther is
a demigod The men of this class are Protestants
only in so far as they protest against any form of
religion which binds the conscience to worship God
to any responsibility in the life to come for
lions done on earth. To these men, Luther is
"stalwart German" a "liberator of thought" but
not reforner in Christian or religious sense.
He is a prominent figure among the agitators of
discomfort and nothing more. He is a radical
whose cry the shout of the French revolution:
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"
Luther renowned his right to teach by author
ity when he abjured that Church which had COM
missioned him to teach in Christ's name. When,
then, protesting Christians survey him and see him
claiming, if he was q second Christ, an extraor-
binary mission from heaven, they have right to
examine his credentials, to investigate his per-
sonal conduct and to scrutinize carefully his Ill
terror motives. When his own writings, the state
ments of his co-reformers and the facts of history
condemn him as a vulgar, staggering blusterer, a
e ;l,,1o LII, Z IL
appetites, his admirers, unable to refute or hon
estly to meet the evidence tell us it does not mat
ter whether Luther was or was not holy man: he,
at any rate, did religion a good service and in
order to be great refomer, it is not necessary to
be holy man.
But what saith the Founder of the Christian
religion? He does, indeed, tell us that men NAV
sometimes be well instructed in true doctrine and
be qualified by learning to teach Others but whose
private life is nevertheless bad: "The scribes and
Pharsees are seated in the chair of Moses whatso-
ever they shall say you, observe and do, but ac-
cordng to their works do We not. For they say and
do not" (St Math. 80 q. For such men. even when
duly commissioned to preach. even when seated IN
the chair of Noses never be apostles. nor the
authors of any true reforms. We have the words
of our Blessed Lord for this: Beware of false
prophets who come to you in the clothing of sheep
but inwardly they are ravenous wolves By their
fruits We shall know them. Do men gather grapes
Of thorns or figs of thistles?o (St Math. I. 16)
Luther, we repeat, cast away his right to teach by
authority when he renowned his right to sit in
the seat Noses
1t tt o cue be the organ of the heart, Luther's
heart VS. factory of corrupt thoughts If we
were to print il cold type the 1anguege oon+o,oo
and Thoughts running through the writings of
Luther, our eaders would return this paper in
disgust a more foulmouthed man or one of
more ungove1nable temper the history of his times
does not record. The English historian. HaIam.
commenting UPON Luther's letter to Henry VIII,
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