Walther: Preachers, not servants of men; (Luther's hymn "Curb Pope and Turk")

      There are many references to Luther's most controversial hymn "Curb Pope and Turk" in the Der Lutheraner newspaper through its lifespan.  In a short blurb by editor Walther, we see how this offended the papists in the Reformation century. From Der Lutheraner, vol. 11 (July 3, 1855), p. 182:

[It is possible there is a clerical error in the year 1558 – a search of history seems only to find a "Duke Ernst" who died in 1546]

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Preachers, not servants of men. 

When a papal envoy visited Duke Ernst of Brunswick in 1558 [sic?], the former asked the duke to forbid his court preacher to sing the hymn: “Preserve us, O Lord, by Thy Word, and prevent the murder of the Pope and Turks”. The duke gave the legate the following beautiful Christ-fearing reply: 

“My preacher is not called because I have to tell him what he should sing, teach or do in church; But he is appointed for this purpose, that by God's command and in place of our Lord Christ, he should preach and teach me and all my own what is useful and necessary to know and learn for eternal salvation for one and all, as well as for the very least in the court, and that he should warn me and everyone, no one excepted, against everything that might be harmful and obstructive and detrimental to salvation, so that one may know to beware of it. For this reason, I do not know how to tell or forbid my preacher anything in this piece; if you do not want to go to church because of them, you have the right to stay out.”

Would that some American parishioners would remember this, who are far from being dukes and yet often want to take the liberty of telling and commanding the preacher what he has to teach!

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      When the LC-MS changed the words of Luther's hymn to remove the reference to "Pope and Turk", they became "servants of men" instead of "beautiful Christ-fearing" servants of Christ.