The menace. [volume] (Aurora, Mo.) 1911-1920, 1916-11-11
SAYS THE WAR BEGAN
WITH REFORMATION
Rome's Expert msnpsr Of History
Accuses Luther Of lnVenting War
and Protestsntism Of De-
streying Christian Unity
AGAIN SEEMS ONE-MAN RULE
Says the Present War Is Punish
ment Being Inflicted for
EurOpe's Great ApoStacy

ment Being Inflicted for
Europe's Great ApOstscy
None Of the nations now involved in
Europc's maelstrom began this war
When Europe threw overheard the prin.
eiples Of unity, on the day that Luthcr
pinned bis theses on the door Of the
cathedral at Wittcnberg, the present war
began. For Christian unity the nations
Of Europe have substituted the " Balance
OF Power" great pyramid resting not
on its base, but on its apex, which, after
svaying perilously for years, has fallen
with n crash. Their structure has iAllen
because In the sixteenth century they
threw over the great center Of unity, the
phPacy. Europe Is being purged, not
A. by Ore, but literally by Gre, in punish.
ment for her great apostacy.
IEol0 says the supposedly learned
IUCI Coude b. Pallen, editor Of
lLH the Catholic Encyclopedia
~ and eminent iuggler OF lit
erature for papal purposes, as
quoted by the pope's Brooklyn
Tablet Of Oct. IL. This may be
regarded as the keynote Of papist
preachment for the campaign al
ready under way to discredit Martin
Luther and the Reformation.
October 81, 1917 will be the four
hundredth anniversary Of that Hal
lowe'en when Luther posted his
ninety-fye propositions on the ca
thedral door in Wittenberg. In
the meantime much will be heard
OF this man whom Rome hates with
a fury well nigh diabolical. Luther,
his work, and the tremendous eff
feet Of that work, will be much in
the public mind during the coming
year; and Rome is beginning early
to twist the thoughts Of its dupes
concerning the hero who fought and
defeated the all-powerful papacy
with no other weapon than the
sword Of the spirit and with no
armor but a righteous cause.
Pallen, the papist, affects great
philosophical breadth when he saws
tha the fighting nations did not
begin the great war but he betrays
conspicuous narrowness and big
otry when he declares that Luther
started the war with a scrap of
paper. Think, il you can, of six
teenth-century monk starting a
notwithstanding war by challeng-
Ing the theologians Of his time to
debate. But such is papistic bonn
bast.
1t il true that Luther did renew
the struggle Of the ages when he
published his theses; but he didn't
start war either then or now. lie
gave a new and most potent express
sion TO the human hunger for free
dom and thirst for reality. Popery
had become a farce through CEN
turies Of papal corruption that
transformed the city of Rome and
the palace Of the popes into a
brothel beneath the contempt OF
barbarians.
Far away in the Thuringian for
ests and the Hartz mountains, wide
ly removed from the artifcialties
of Rome, a mighty race was strug-
Cling with nature to overcome diff
fculties and thereby acquire those
genuine virtues which have made
the Saxon a virile individual and a
determining force in civilization.
From that race sprang Martin
Luther, the son and the grandson
of peasants. In due time the force
of his personality made Rome trem.
BILE; for he was the champion Of the
real. the true, and the good in its
age-lOng struggle with privilege and
pretense.
III We are to 90 back Of this wal
to discover its beginning, we must
20 further than the sixteenth cen.
tury. Papist writers would have u:
believe that there was no war prior
to that time, but those who have
delved into history know how the
world had been unified time and
time again under such warriors and
universal rulers as Alexander OF
Greece and Augustus Of pagan
Rome. There was nothing new OF
unique about this unity that rested
on papal power. 1t was spother
subjection Of the world to a despot
who made q little more than Gus.
tomary claim to divine sanction.
There is, indeed, a greater war oi
which the present war may be re.
garded ss a phase or incident Thai