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	<title>Zeal &#8211; Conrad Askland</title>
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		<title>Martin Luther to the Christian Reader &#8211; 1545</title>
		<link>https://conradaskland.com/blog/martin-luther-to-the-christian-reader-1545/</link>
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		<dc:creator><![CDATA[askland]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:52:22 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Witches! the Musical]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Abomination]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Besotted]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blasphemy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dr Martin Luther]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Eds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Eyster]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Henry Eyster Jacobs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Holman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Humility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indulgences]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lord Jesus Christ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Monk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Papacy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Papists]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reconciliation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saul]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Slack]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Spaeth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Works Of Martin Luther]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Zeal]]></category>
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					<description><![CDATA[Martin Luther&#8217;s letter &#8220;To The Christian Reader&#8221; was written in 1545, a year before he died. It has a tenor of reconciliation. He asks readers to cut him a little slack for at one time being a monk and upholding the Pope&#8217;s theology to the point that he would have &#8220;committed murder&#8221; to keep it [&#8230;]]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Martin Luther&#8217;s letter &#8220;To The Christian Reader&#8221; was written in 1545, a year before he died. It has a tenor of reconciliation. He asks readers to cut him a little slack for at one time being a monk and upholding the Pope&#8217;s theology to the point that he would have &#8220;committed murder&#8221; to keep it in force.</p>
<p>A simple quick read overview might be this excerpt: <em></em></p>
<p><em>&#8220;Therefore, Christian reader, thou wilt find in my earliest books and writings how many points of faith I then, with all humility, yielded and conceded to the pope, which since then I have held and condemned for the most horrible blasphemy and abomination, and which I would have to be so held and so condemned forever. Amen.&#8221;</em></p>
<p>Here is the letter in it&#8217;s original context, translated into English:</p>
<p><span id="more-3582"></span></p>
<p>_Dr. Martin Luther to the Christian Reader_<br />
by Dr. Martin Luther, 1545<br />
Published in:<br />
_Works of Martin Luther_<br />
Adolph Spaeth, L.D. Reed, Henry Eyster Jacobs, et Al., Trans. &amp; Eds.<br />
(Philadelphia: A. J. Holman Company, 1915), Vol. 1, pp. 10-11.</p>
<p>DR. MARTIN LUTHER TO THE CHRISTIAN READER</p>
<p>EDITION OF 1545</p>
<p>Above all things I beseech the Christian reader and beg himÂ  for<br />
the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, to read my earliest booksÂ  very<br />
circumspectly and with much pity, knowing that before now IÂ  too<br />
was a monk, and one of the right frantic and raving papists.Â  When<br />
I took up this matter against Indulgences, I was so full and<br />
drunken, yea, so besotted in papal doctrine that, out of my great<br />
zeal, I would have been ready to do murder &#8212; at least, I would<br />
have been glad to see and help that murder should be done &#8212; on<br />
all who would not be obedient and subject to the pope, even to<br />
his smallest word.</p>
<p>Such a Saul was I at that time; and I meant it right earnestly;<br />
and there are still many such to-day. In a word, I was not such a<br />
frozen and ice-cold champion of the papacy as Eck and others of<br />
his kind have been and still are. They defend the Roman See more<br />
for the sake of the shameful belly, which is their god, than<br />
because they are really attached to its cause. Indeed I am wholly<br />
of the opinion that like latter-day Epicureans, they only laugh at<br />
the pope. But I verily espoused this cause in deepest earnest and<br />
in all fidelity; the more so because I shrank from the Last Day<br />
with great anxiety and fear and terror, and yet from the depths of<br />
my heart desired to be saved.</p>
<p>Therefore, Christian reader, thou wilt find in my earliest books<br />
and writings how many points of faith I then, with all humility,<br />
yielded and conceded to the pope, which since then I have held and<br />
condemned for the most horrible blasphemy and abomination, and<br />
which I would have to be so held and so condemned forever. Amen.</p>
<p>Thou wilt therefore ascribe this my error, or as my opponents<br />
venomously call it, this inconsistency of mine, to the time, and<br />
to my ignorance and inexperience. At the beginning I was quite<br />
alone and without any helpers, and moreover, to tell the truth,<br />
unskilled in all these things, and far too unlearned to discuss<br />
such high and weighty matters. For it was without any intention,<br />
purpose, or will of mine that I fell, quite unexpectedly, into<br />
this wrangling and contention.Â  This I take God, the Searcher of<br />
hearts, to witness.</p>
<p>I tell these things to the end that, if thou shalt read my books,<br />
thou mayest know and remember that I am one of those who, as St.<br />
Augustine says of himself, have grown by writing and by teaching<br />
others, and not one of those who, starting with nothing, have in a<br />
trice become the most exalted and most learned doctors. We find,<br />
alas! many of these self-grown doctors; who in truth are nothing,<br />
do nothing and accomplish nothing, are moreover untried and<br />
inexperienced, and yet, after a single look at the Scriptures,<br />
think themselves able wholly to exhaust its spirit.</p>
<p>Farewell, dear reader, in the Lord. Pray that the Word may be<br />
further spread abroad, and may be strong against the miserable<br />
devil. For he is mighty and wicked, and just now is raving<br />
everywhere and raging cruelly, like one who well knows and feels<br />
that his time is short, and that the kingdom of his Vicar, the<br />
Antichrist in Rome, is sore beset. But may the God of all grace<br />
and mercy strengthen and complete in us the work He has begun, to<br />
His honor and to the comfort of His little flock. Amen.</p>
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