DL5: How can one become a Lutheran? (Der Lutheraner 1917)

      This continues from Part 4b (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series presenting Der Lutheraner, 1888-1934, in English. — In 1917, Prof. Fuerbringer returned to the editorship after a 3+ year run by Prof. Theo. Graebner. He inserted a very short blurb which caught my eye when going through this volume.  A title with a short, pithy question made me wonder what it had to say, and after having it translated, I decided it was most worthy of a separate blog post.  Der Lutheraner, vol. 73 (1917), p. 281 [EN]:

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How can one become a Lutheran?

The Lutheran theologian Matthias Flacius reported that he had heard the papal legate Antonius [Antonio Possevino] say that one should not read Paul's letters; "for I know," he said, "some people who have become Lutherans merely by reading Paul's letters." The papal legate Antonius was right.  

Valerius Herberger ordered a monk, the eloquent monk Petrus [?], to diligently read the Epistles of St. Paul to the Romans and Galatians. After a few days he left the monastery.

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I recall in the training of my youth a similar, if not the same, account and it drives home Walther's point that the Lutheran Church is actually the "true visible Church of God on earth".  — In the next Part 6a, an essay on a topic for today: "No Men in the Church".