7. Luther ' s Separation From Rome. 133
day dawning for the church. But encouragement had changed to reproach and condemnation. Many dignitaries, of both church and state, were convicted of the truthfulness of his theses; but they soon saw that the acceptance of these truths would involve great changes. To enlighten and reform the people would be virtually to undermine the authority of Rome, to stop thousands of streams now flowing into her treasury, and thus greatly to curtail the extravagance and luxury of the papal leaders. Furthermore, to teach the people to think and act as responsible beings, looking to Christ alone for salvation, would overthrow the pontiff ' s throne, and eventually destroy their own authority. For this reason they refused the knowledge tendered them of God, and arrayed themselves against Christ and the truth by [ 132 ] their opposition to the man whom He had sent to enlighten them.
Luther trembled as he looked upon himself— one man opposed to the mightiest powers of earth. He sometimes doubted whether he had indeed been led of God to set himself against the authority of the church.“ Who was I,” he writes,“ to oppose the majesty of the pope, before whom... the kings of the earth and the whole world trembled?... No one can know what my heart suffered during these first two years, and into what despondency, I may say into what despair, I was sunk.” 177 But he was not left to become utterly disheartened. When human support failed, he looked to God alone, and learned that he could lean in perfect safety upon that all-powerful arm.
To a friend of the Reformation Luther wrote:“ We cannot attain to the understanding of Scripture either by study or by the intellect. Your first duty is to begin by prayer. Entreat the Lord to grant you, of His great mercy, the true understanding of His word. There is no other interpreter of the word of God than the Author of this word, as He Himself has said,‘ They shall be all taught of God.’ Hope for nothing from your own labors, from
177 D ' Aubigné, b. 3, ch. 6.