Protestants and the Papacy
By Editor
ON another page of this issue of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES we have made the statement that those who apologize for the Papacy now, would have condemned Luther if they had lived in the days of the Reformation, and that therefore they are not Protestants in any sense of the word. Since that article was written, we have received from the editor of the Herold der Wahrheit a translation of a part of the remarks of the prosecuting attorney of the city of Cassel, Germany, in the case of the Rev. Thümmel, who was indicted for attacking the Papacy and calling the Pope antichrist. In moving for nine months' imprisonment for Thümmel, and two months' imprisonment for the publisher of the article, the prosecuting attorney said among other things:— “The defendant refers (or appeals) to Dr. M. Luther. First, it must be considered that Luther lived three hundred years ago, and that meanwhile the customs, the tone, and taste, etc., have changed. If Luther lived to-day and should say and write the same things that he did then, he would undoubtedly, by reason of section 166 of the Penal Code, be condemned.” Undoubtedly; and this is in a city where the majority of the churches to-day are Lutheran. If a man should be condemned now for using language similar to that which Luther used three hundred years ago, then he ought to have been condemned then, for it is Rome's boast that she never changes. If Luther were alive to-day he would undoubtedly say the same things about the Catholic Church that he said in the days of Leo X., and would include many professed Protestants in his remarks. Fortunately there are some still who are animated by the same spirit that Luther was, and who do not flatter the Pope simply because his power is increasing.