Conflict with Erasmus

During Luther’s stay at Wartburg, a great turmoil arose in the church of Wittenberg. Some of Luther’s followers wanted to reform the church even more thoroughly than Luther. They wanted to ban images, altars and organs from churches. They wanted also that the believers receive bread and wine at the Lord’s Supper. Some people even said that they were guided by the Holy Spirit. Their main aim was to root out of ‘popish wickedness’. This even result in a violent destruction of images. Luther returned unexpectedly, after he was schocked by everything that happened. On 9 March 1522 he preached against the rebellious and violent people. After a week, peace came back in Wittenberg. In 1524, Luther came in conflict with the Dutch humanist Erasmus. Humanism is a revival of classical science. That is studying fromm Roman and Greek books. He studied a lot of Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, and in 1516 he published his own New Testament in Greek, complete with Latin translation and with notes of his own. It seemed that Erasmus would join the Reformation, so Luther had high expectations of Erasmus. However, Luther had a great use of the translation of Erasmus. He used it to translated the Bible from Latin to German. Erasmus also had a sharp eye for the external decline in the Roman Catholic Church. In his book, The Praise of Folly, he sharply criticized the carnal lives of many clergymen, the ignorance of priests, he scoffed at the faith of many saints and he criticized the circumstances that surrounded church ceremonies. Many people expected that he would join the Reformation. This expectation turned to nothing in 1524. In his book The Freedom of the Will, he showed that he didn’t side with the ‘heretic’ Luther. He also showed that he agreed more with Pope Leo X than with Luther. Erasmus didn’t agree with the teaching of Sola Gratia. He also denied the ‘total depravity’ of man. Humans are ‘weakened’, not ‘depraved’. Also after the Fall, people had ‘free will’ to choose the right. Only the Gospel was needed to follow the example of Jesus Christ. In 1525, the answer of Luther came. His book On the Enslaved Will was published. Luther wrote that he was happy that Erasmus expressed his opinion on the Reformation. Everyone could see the difference between Luther and Erasmus. Luther knew that man only can be saved by grace. And the Bible was his source. He wrote in his book: ‘We can’t believe that man himself can choose who will be saved, God does. Believers only owe their salvation to the grace of God. Not one single good work can occupy the place of the saving work of Christ. The human will is not free to choose for God of itself. If man chooses for God, this is an action of the Spirit of God! Therefore I am a happy Christian, for God is faithful and will not deceive me.’ In the faith of the grace of God Luther died. He died on 18 February 1546 in Eisleben, his birthplace. Shortly after his death a note was found, with the words: ‘We are beggars. That’s true.’