Dominicans of Avrillé: Protestantism - Born of Insanity, Leading to Insanity

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Protestantism: Born of Insanity, Leading to Insanity - Part I

Adapted from Jacques Balmès Le Protestantisme comparé au Catholicisme

Republished by the Dominicans of Avrillé in two parts.

Delirium and fanaticism are a natural component of Protestantism. One could write volumes to prove it, but a quick look at the facts will suffice here.

Luther discussed religion with the Devil

Let’s start with Luther. What could be more insane than to claim to be taught by the Devil, to glory in it, and to establish a new doctrine based on this rather doubtful (to say the least!) authority? This is, however, exactly what was done by the founder of Protestantism, Luther himself, who left written accounts of his interview with Satan.

Whether the apparition was real or just a nightmarish hallucination during a long night troubled by fever, it’s impossible to push fanaticism any further than to brag about being instructed by such a teacher.

Luther tells us himself that he had several colloquies with the Devil. The most noteworthy is the vision – which he recounts very seriously – where Satan assailed Luther with arguments against the Mass celebrated privately, without the faithful. Luther depicts the scene in vivid colors. He awakes in the middle of the night, and Satan appears to him: he sweats, trembles; his heart is beating terribly. Nevertheless, a discussion is engaged. The Devil shows himself to be such a good dialectician that Luther is vanquished, and left with no response. The Devil’s logic was accompanied by a voice so terrifying that the blood froze in poor Luther’s veins. He said:

“I then understood how it is that people often die at the dawning of day; it’s because the Devil can kill or suffocate them, and, without going so far as that, when he argues with them, he puts them in such difficulty that he can thus cause their death: this is what I have often experienced myself.”

A very curious passage indeed!


Zwingli helped by a phantom

Another example of this folly: the phantom that appeared to Zwingli, the founder of Protestantism in Switzerland. This heresiarch wanted to deny the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist. He claimed that the consecrated bread and wine are nothing more than the sign of the Body and Blood of Christ. However, he was bothered by the texts of Sacred Scripture that clearly affirm the contrary. All of a sudden, just as he was imagining a discussion with the secretary of the town, a black or white phantom (as he says himself), appeared to him and provided him with the desired explanation.

This edifying story comes from Zwingli himself!


Melanchthon’s superstitions

Melanchthon showed himself to be strangely credulous when it came to dreams, extraordinary phenomena and astrological predictions. His letters are full of examples. During the Diet of Augsburg, Melanchthon interpreted various happenings in Rome (the flooding of the Tiber and the birth of a monstrous mule having the foot of a crane), and in the territory of Augsburg (the birth of a calf with two heads) as favorable omens for the new Gospel. These events were for him the unquestionable announcement of the imminent ruin of Rome and the triumph of Protestantism. He affirms this very seriously to Luther in a letter.

He would read his daughter’s horoscope for her, and trembled in seeing that Mars “manifested a dreadful aspect”. He was also terrified by the flames of a comet appearing in the northern sky. The astrologists predicted that the stars would be more favorable to theological debates in autumn, and that sufficed to console him concerning the delays in the conferences of Augsburg. These “reasons” were also good enough to convince his friends, the leaders of the Protestant faction.

Someone having predicted that Melanchthon would be shipwrecked in the Baltic Sea, he refused to embark. A certain Franciscan had prophesied that the power of the Pope was going to disappear, and that in the year 1600 the Turks would become the masters of Italy and Germany: Melanchthon glorified in having the original version of the prophecy. Moreover, the earthquakes which occur shortly after reinforce him in this belief.

To be continued…