Miracles [1531]
S. Steuens
tombe. After Stephen's tomb was discovered near Jerusalem in 415, his relics were widely
distributed (Rotelle 3/9.125n). Cf. Augustine's
Sermon 318 (AD 425) preached at the installation of some of
these relics at Hippo, Par. 1 (PL 38.1437–38;
Rotelle 3/9.147). The Golden
Legend quotes The City of God 22.8 (AD
413–27) (CCL 48.821–24; 1NPNF 2.488–90), on miracles that occurred when
sufferers came into contact with the relics of Stephen (GL 1.48–49).
Miracles were done by the saints to confirme theyr doctrine.[1573]
As . . .
seke. Cf. Acts 19.12.
] Acts
the miracles . . .
preachinge. Tyndale's emphasis on the saints as transmitters of
doctrine is a creative variation on the Reformation argument
over their role. In early works Luther associated Christ and
the saints as helpers of all who by faith are in communion with them,
The Blessed Sacrament and the Brotherhoods,
1519 (WA 2.744–45, 748; LW 35.52–54, 58). Luther could observe
critically that feast days in honor of the saints have multiplied
excessively and are not celebrated religiously, cf. Treatise on Good Works, 1520 (WA 6.229/32–230/6;
LW 44.55). Later, Luther's paramount concern is the lack of any warrant
from Scripture for prayer invoking the saints' aid, leaving it among the
abusive human inventions of the church: Confession concerning Christ's Supper, 1528 (WA 26.508; LW
37.370); On Translating, An Open Letter, 1530 (WA
30/2.643–45; LW 35.198–200). The Augsburg Confession of 1530 affirms the
commemoration of the saints as models of faith and good works in their
calling, but holds that praying to them for help is ruled out by Jesus'
sole mediatorship, Art. 21, cf. The Book of Concord
46f. Melanchthon's Apologia for the
Confession fleshes out commemoration into thanksgiving for gifts given
the saints, encouragement from their experiences of grace, and imitation
. But there is no scriptural ground for invoking them,
even if we believe they continue to pray for the church on earth (ibid.,
229–36). Upper German reformers, such as Martin Bucer in Strassburg,
took more radical action in eliminating both prayer to the saints and
their commemoration.
Catholic controversialists went to the defense of venerating and invoking
the saints, as in Josse
Clichtove's De veneratione sanctorum (Paris, 1523) and Jacob
van Hoogstraten's Dialogus de veneratione et
invocatione sanctorum contra perfidiam Lutheranam (Cologne,
1524). Johann Eck systematized the Catholic case in Ch. 15 of his
Enchiridion, "Concerning the Veneration of the Saints"
(Fraenkel 173–90; Battles 110–21), arguing from foreshadowings in
Scripture , from reason, the Fathers, and longstanding custom
in the
church. Eck wards off Reformation arguments
from the exclusive mediatorship of Christ as wrongly dissociating Christ
from those who are, in him and with him, mediators of intercession. The
imperial response to the Augsburg Confession digested Eck's
arguments , while highlighting how the Lutherans, by denying
invocation of the saints, associated themselves with a line
of medieval heretics whom the church had already condemned. Cf. Die Confutatio der Confessio Augustana, ed.
Herbert Immenkötter, CC 33 (Münster: Aschendorff, 1979) 124–31, esp.
125. Johann Dietenberger , writing in Augsburg in October
1530, argued that it is permissible to invoke the saints
because the church defines for belief and practice only what is obscure
and implicit in Scripture. Cf. Phimostomos
scripturariorum, ed. Erwin Iserloh et
al., CC 38 (Münster : Aschendorff, 1985) 114–56. The title, "A
Muzzle for Those Gone Mad Over Scripture," polemically implies that the
reformers are rabid dogs. Underlying the biblical and
theological argument for praying to the saints were the fears
and anxieties of believers , for whom the saints were "friends
in high places" and influential protectors. Cf. Delumeau,
Part II, "Nous ne sommes pas seuls," 177–289.