From Luther to Lawlessness

New Zealand Tablet, 4 March 1920, Page 15

From Luther to Lawlessness

“Perhaps,” wrote a Catholic author forty years ago, “they who have seen the first hour of the German Empire will see its last. Nothing is strong without God, as the Bismarcks of our age—dwarf Neros, compounded of a Turkish Pasha and a Chinese Mandarin —will find to their cost. ’ The Most High will laugh them to scorn.” The writer was a true prophet. The Hohenzollerns built without God, and their labor was in vain. On foundations of falsehood, rapine, unjustice, and violence they erected their strength, and it has proved to be but weakness. The very reasons given by the nations that overthrew the Prussians were that Prussia was tyrannical, unprincipled, deceitfulcaring for no law human or divine and even though the nations that made these charges against Prussia may be not much better, yet were they the instruments in the designs of God. As Prussia went, as Rome and Greece went long before her, so everynation that defies God will go one day, soon or late, exactly for the same reasons. For truth, justice, and charity are the only sure foundations for any throne or for any government, and the violation of these virtues always follows the denial of God by the rulers of a people. As thrones divorced from God have fared, so too have fared the people who have rejected Him. Three hundred years ago, Martin Luther and his fel-low-“reformers” told the people that men ax-e free and independent in matters of religion. The message has been taken up and repeated by statesmen and politicians. The people have developed the argument and reasoned that if they are not bound to God they are bound to nobody and are free in everything. Hence we have our free-thinkers, our free-lovers, not to say our Freemasons. The logic of the people is right. If it is lawful to rebel against God and religion, which is the sign and proof of man’s subjection to God, what right has a puny, mortal king to claim allegiance from any man ? If such a government teaches children that God and religion do not matter, are the children wrong if, later, Grey hold that governments do not matter? The principles of the Reformation, developed logically by philosophers and politicians in England as well as in Germany, have all led inexorably to one conclusion : every man has the right to revolt. The whole trend of modern thought is summed up in that blasphemous stanza of Carducci’s:

Salute 0 Sot ana, 0 Rebellione ! O Forza vindice Della rag-ion e. All the seeds of modern anarchy, all the principles of modern unrest are contained in the Protestant doctrine of private judgment. That doctrine was designed to lead men into rebellion against Rome : it led them into rebellion against every law, natural, human, and divine. Tyranny, disorder, bankruptcy of manners and morals are the legitimate offspring of Martin Luther’s preaching. Once men were taught to overthrow the authority of God they quickly learnt that they had no reason and no sanction for respect for any other authority. Holding fast to no high principles, the men in high places soon justified the people. When undeserving upstarts and profligates came to hold responsible, posts as a matter of course, it was also a matter of course that no man should respect them ; and without respect there is no authority. Another fruit of the Reformation was that we find Protestant England fostering and helping rebellion among people in other countries. Portugal, Italy, and any other people * that wish to overthrow legitimate authority always find open or secret support among members of the English Cabinet.