LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

STEPHENSON: LET YOUR HOLY ANGEL BE WITH ME 33
elevare corpus et sanguinem Christi nihil aliud est quam Evangelium
praedicare toti orbi etc. 3
Which being interpreted means roughly the following:
Martin said he has been vouchsafed frequent experience of the bodily
presence. He has beheld amazing visions. He has often seen angels.
These events have been of such a nature as to force him to break off from
celebrating Mass. “We therefore retain the elevation”, he said, “on
account of Isaiah’s Sanctus, which is highly appropriate to this gesture.
For the elevation gets across how He sits on the throne and reigns. And
to elevate the Body and Blood of Christ is nothing other than to preach
the Gospel to the whole world, etc.”
Assuming Casel to be an honest reporter, we discover in the De servo
arbitrio of the same year 1525 the reason why Luther never ventured to
share these astounding faith-strengthening experiences with his reading
public. The “external clarity of Holy Scripture” is manifested when bearers
of the dominically instituted office demonstrate dogma binding on the
consciences of all Christians. 4 A parallel “internal clarity of Holy Scripture”
is also vouchsafed by God, but to individual Christians, for their private
illumination, supporting the fides qua creditur (i.e., the—subjective—faith
by which we believe) but in no wise establishing the fides quae creditur
(i.e., the—objective—faith which we believe). 5 If the Reformer saw angels
and was granted sensory knowledge of the mystery of the altar, these
experiences vouchsafed him much in the way of claritas interna but nothing
under the heading of claritas externa. 6
3 Theodor Kolde, Analecta lutherana. Briefe und Actenstücke zur Geschichte Luthers
(Gotha: Friedrich Andreas Parthes, 1883) 72.
4 “There is therefore another, an external judgment, whereby with the greatest certainty
we judge the spirits and dogmas of all men, not only for ourselves, but also for others and for
their salvation. This judgment belongs to the public ministry of the Word and to the outward
office, and is chiefly the concern of leaders and preachers of the Word. We make use of it
when we seek to strengthen those who are weak in faith and confute opponents. This is what
we earlier called ‘the external clarity of Holy Scripture.’” Qtd from Luther and Erasmus:
Free Will and Salvation, Library of Christian Classics XVII, eds. E. Gordon Rupp and Philip
S. Watson (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1969) 159.
5 See Luther and Erasmus 159: “What we say is this: the spirits are to be tested or
proved by two sorts of judgment. One is internal, whereby through the Holy Spirit or a
special gift of God, anyone who is enlightened concerning himself and his own salvation,
judges and discerns with the greatest certainty the dogmas and opinions of all men. Of this it
is said in I Cor. 1[:2-15]: ‘The spiritual man judges all things, but himself is judged by no
one.’ This belongs to faith and is necessary for every individual Christian. We have called it
above ‘the internal clarity of Holy Scripture.’ … But this judgment helps no one else, and
with it we are not here concerned, for no one, I think, doubts its reality”; emphasis added.
6 “… [H]e did not let his direct teaching revolve around such mystical experiences.”
Hoffman 154.