H3b: How Reihing, Jesuit, turned Lutheran; Rome now using Reihing's method

      This continues from Part 3a (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series beginning with Walther's announcement of the republished "little book" by Matthias Hoe von Hoenegg, a book that gave instruction to south German Lutherans oppressed by Roman Catholics. — This segment concludes the 1845 Der Lutheraner article on Jacob Reihing. Of the histories recorded of Jesuit Reihing, few provide much in the way of quotes from his own writings. And so I was glad when I found that Der Lutheraner, probably Walther, provided an important quote from Reihing himself regarding his own conversion from the Roman Catholic Church to the Lutheran confession. There are few people of Reihing's stature who have made this move, and so his account is especially valuable. — Because Reihing's status as a Jesuit was so notable, it was surprising to discover that there is no English Wikipedia article on him. The Catholic Encyclopedia leaves him out, likely because his conversion was so devastating for the Jesuits — more on that below. — From Der Lutheraner, vol. 1 (March 22, 1845), p. 60 [EN]:

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The converted Jesuit.

[probably by C. F. W. Walther, editor; part 2]

 

Reihing turned to Württemberg, preached a sermon of recantation in the presence of three Württemberg princes in Tübingen on November 23rd of the same year [1621] and eight days later delivered a sermon against the Roman Sacrifice of the Mass in the court chapel in Stuttgart. In 1628 he finally passed away as a Lutheran professor of theology and superintendent at Tübingen, gentle and blessed in true faith in his one Mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ.

We still have several excellent writings, which Reihing published after his conversion, and in which he refuted his previous writings, written in papal blindness, as sincerely and humbly as thoroughly; one of the most excellent of these is entitled: “The Torn Papal Bonds.” ["Die zerissenen päbstlichen Banden."; no online record of this in PRDL] In this book, Reihing himself tells how he came to this realization as follows:

"My listeners (in the Palatinate of Neuburg), most of whom were Evangelicals or had only recently been enticed to the papacy, demanded proof from the Scriptures, and my opponents [Lutherans], against whom I wrote and spoke, also drove me into the Scriptures and challenged me to fight with them on the basis of the Scriptures alone.

What was I to do? I was compelled to seek scriptural proof for everything, so that in the minds of my listeners, which were still unsettled but so attached to the Scriptures, it would not appear as if I myself had no confidence in my cause, indeed as if I was forced to give it up myself. I therefore endeavored to establish the papacy from the books of divine Scripture and thus to overthrow the Augsburg Confession. This was the purpose of all my sermons, conversations and writings. It also seemed to many and to myself that I was fighting with luck; I was already walking along like a highly celebrated victor, and was also considered so here and there. But the Lord's reckoning in heaven was different; according to His counsel, my battle was to have a completely different outcome. As if by a divine ray of light, the blindness and darkness of my proud spirit was finally dispelled; for a little more than a year I began to realize, with an ever brighter view of my spirit illuminated from heaven from day to day, that in all the most important points of controversy the Scriptures were most clearly against the Papists and for the Evangelicals. And so, at last, not only was the lying veneer of truth removed from the papal errors, but also the veneer of error that had been put on the Evangelical truth was wiped off in my soul. The error that I had previously defended as truth fell, and the purest truth that I had fought against as error finally awoke in me, and triumphed.”

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      Walther's extensive quote from Reihing above was covered also, partially, by G. Brock in his 1847 book p. 178-179, and by Pastor Julius Schall in his 1894 history of Reihing, p. 19. (More on these books in the next post.) — Although Walther did not mention Hoe von Hoenegg and his Evangelical Handbook in this 1845 article, he did so in his 1871 announcement of the reprint of Hoe's book.

 

Catechism of the Catholic Church   — The Catholic Encyclopedia 

    Today, the Catechism of the Catholic Church attempts to use the same method that Jesuit theologian Jacob Reihing used, citing the Scriptures. Pages 689–720 lists all the Bible citations, about 3000, in their Catechism. One wonders that the contributors to this Catechism studied Reihing’s Catholic Handbook for tips on how to use the Scriptures for their own deceptive ends. Again, Reihing's Handbook was in response to Hoe von Hoenegg’s Evangelical Handbook. — 

      The Catholic Encyclopedia (Google Books, HathiTrust) does not have an article on the Jesuit Jacob Reihing, but he and Hoe, are mentioned as "apostates" in an article about the Jesuit polemicist "Laurenz Forer"). However the Encyclopedia has an article on the notable Jesuit Conrad Vetter. The irony of this is that Vetter translated Jacob Reihing's Catholic Handbook that was written against Hoe von Hoenegg, demonstrating that Reihing, as the author of this highly regarded Jesuit book was more notable as a Catholic theologian than Vetter. Reihing's book was hailed by the Jesuits as an important book for their coercive tactics against unwilling Lutherans in south Germany. Doubly ironic is that the Catholic Encyclopedia is expressly embarrassed at Vetter, saying "Unfortunately the tone [of Vetter's writings] is ordinarily not very refined."  The Jesuits could not say the same about Reihing's highly regarded book.  The Catholic Church, especially the Jesuits, would like nothing better than to bury the name of Jacob Reihing. May his name therefore be blessed by those who hold to the Holy Scriptures alone for their Christian faith, as Reihing came to do.

      We are not done with the dear Jacob Reihing! The histories of him and the places and times surrounding him are highly significant even today. For anyone who wants to be a true Lutheran, they reveal how it actually stands between Lutherans and Roman Catholics, notwithstanding the silence of today's LC-MS teachers and leaders. In the next Part 3c, we offer an English translation of 4 different histories of Reihing