"Wider die himmlischen Propheten," this vigorous treatise of the Reformer against every phase of nomism that does not understand the great difference between Old and New Testament, and against all enthusiasm that loosens the soul from the firm foundation given by the word. Wappler72 raises the question in which sense we can speak of liberty of creed and conscience during the Reformation period, and makes plain the tenacity with which the Anabaptists, even in Thuringia, held their own for a long time.
Burckhardt, Lezius, Richter, J. von Walter, Zickendrath and others73 cover the relations between Luther and Erasmus, and whoever studies these publications should be convinced of the necessity of Luther's separation from Erasmus. They belong to two entirely different periods, and their religious and moral convictions stood in direct opposition to each other. We understand readily that Wernle (Die Renaissance des Christentums im i6. Jahrhundert, 1904, p. 11ff.) and Troeltsch (Die Kultur der Gegenwart, 2 ed. Leipzig, 1909, IV, 1 p. 473ff.) judge Erasmus entirely differently and pronounce him "Den groeszten Bahnbrecher der Renaissance des Christentums im 16. Jahrhundert"; but this only shows, as Hauck correctly says, how so many representatives of modern theology have forgotten the objectiveness that to Ranke was the necessary requisite for historical judgment. All the greater is the debt we owe to J. von Walter, who opposed these views in a very able manner. Walter has again also edited the "Diatribe" of Erasmus, and Scheel has offered us Luther's "De servo arbitrio" in a new translation, together with a good introduction and many explanatory notes. The essays of C. Stange are also to be noted in this connection.78
