Pff1: Walther on Pfeiffer's Lutheranism Before Luther

      While reviewing the issues of the Der Lutheraner periodical a few years ago, I ran across a short blurb written in 1872 by C. F. W. Walther, a review of the book Lutheranism Before Luther by Dr. August Pfeiffer (1640-1698) originally published in 1679. [see here, here, here, here, and here]. Wherever Walther commented on a book, I took notice. In this case, the title of his book review interested me, because it raises a question that Lutherans might ask themselves occasionally: 

Did the ancient church believe as Lutherans do today? 

Of course the Roman Catholic theologians have, from the beginning of Luther's Reformation until today, attempted to answer that question in the negative. In their zeal, they have used learned arguments but also blatant forgeries and hoaxes. The Reformed blogger James Swan, in his blog "Beggars All Reformation", is particularly focused on defending against today's Romanists and their deceptions and half-truths against Luther. But Lutherans have a very learned and enthusiastic polemicist in our Pfeiffer against the Romanists, even if he is from the 17th century. (Some Bach enthusiasts may cringe when finding out that Pfeiffer "strongly influenced Johann Sebastian Bach's faith and thought".)

      What can be quite disturbing when dealing with this subject is when Romanizing Lutherans blur the Lutheran doctrinal distinctives. This happens particularly when matters of adiaphora are addressed, things indifferent. When ceremonies, such as what the "Gottesdienst" organization promote, become more important than fundamental doctrines, they are leaving not only Lutheran doctrine, but also that of the ancient Church.

     August Pfeiffer's book can be somewhat difficult to follow in places due to the logic used to counter the deceptive Jesuit priest Father Engel, and at times due to the use of Latin. So we are fortunate to have C. F. W. Walther's brief introduction to set us on the right path to understanding Pfeiffer's situation and arguments against the wily Jesuit. From Der Lutheraner, vol. 28 (Jan. 1, 1872), p. 55-56 [EN]:

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Lutheranism before Luther 

and the New Roman Papacy Revealed by Luther,

by

Dr. August Pfeiffer.

Saint Louis, Mo. and Leipzig.

1872.

It gives us great pleasure to be able to inform our readers that Mr. Fr. Dette in St. Louis has once more rekindled his zeal for the dissemination of good books by again seeking out and republishing the book of the above title.

This book is as follows. About 200 years ago, a Jesuit priest by the name of [Arnold] Engel published a short sketch in doggerel verse, in which, in order to embarrass and ridicule the Lutherans, he demanded three things: 

1. to state exactly which Pope and at what time he first fell away from God's Word; 

2. to name those who had believed as he did before Luther, and 

3. to prove whether anyone had ever been saved through the Lutheran faith. 

The Jesuit thought that he had presented the Lutherans with such difficult and tricky questions that no one would dare burn their fingers on them. And so the great theologian Dr. August Pfeiffer made a point of it and answered those questions so thoroughly in the book indicated, demonstrating so strikingly the apostasy of the papacy from God's Word and showing the correctness of the Reformation so convincingly that the Jesuit answered them so lamely that everyone could now see how he had caught himself in his own trap. Everything that Dr. Pfeiffer has written has, so to speak, hands and feet and is written in a spirit of faith, including this writing: “Lutherthum vor Luther.” Whoever wants to read something thorough about it should acquire it; he will not regret it. Even now the Jesuits often raise the question: Lutherans, how old is your church? Where was it before Luther? and they think they have said and asked something really clever, to which we Lutherans would have to owe the answer. But Dr. Pfeiffer has sent such questioners home in such a way that they can only throw stones of blasphemy around them, as the Jews once did. John 8:59.

Dr. Pfeiffer was professor of Oriental languages first in Wittenberg and then in Leipzig and finally became superintendent in Lübeck, where he died in 1698. When he was still a boy of five, he took such a hard fall from the top floor of the house that he was thought to be dead, and arrangements were already made for his burial; but when the eldest sister was busy dressing him in his death-gown, and accidentally pricked him in the finger with a needle, the supposed dead man moved, withdrew the pricked finger, and then, to the inexpressible joy of his relatives, returned to full consciousness. —

The book has 261 pages in small octavo. The printing is excellent. It can be obtained (bound for 75 cents, sent by post free for 85 cents) at the address of the publisher, Mr. Fr. Dette, St. Louis, Mo.

W. [Walther]

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Walther's glowing review caused me to borrow a library copy (because there was no online copy), scan it, and upload it to the Internet Archive here. It's print quality allowed me to OCR the German text and then have it machine translated. Before I present a translation, I want to provide some "Notable Quotes" in the next Part Pff2.

- - - - - - - - - - - -  TABLE OF CONTENTS  - - - - - - - - - - - -

Pff1: This introduction: Walther on Pfeiffer's Lutheranism Before Luther

Pff2: Evangelical doctrine, “defend to the death”; Harrison a “deceitful peacemaker”?

Pff3: Old Missouri republishes Pfeiffer (another BTL book)

[See below for a similar translated book by a well known Lutheran theologian.]

 

      Another English translated book relating to the above was published in 2017 by Repristination Press: Two Books Against the Papacy. The second of these "books", or more correctly a pamphlet, was originally authored by the well known Balthasar Meisner, another Lutheran theologian that our Pfeiffer mentions several times in his book. Meisner's work is entitled 

A Catholic Answer to the Heretical Question of the Jesuits: 

Where Was the True Religion and Church before the Time of Luther? (1627) 

At just 27 pages, it is a good quick read giving a defense against the Jesuit papists on the same question that Pfeiffer addresses. At only $14 on Amazon, it is a good value since it includes an 85 page essay comparison of the Roman and Evangelical Lutheran doctrines by Nicolaus Hunnius.