He Pasa Ekklesia; An Original History of the Religious Denominations at Present Existing in the United States (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1844 Excerpt: ... at Wittenberg a few years before.' It was this interesting people, after they had thrown off the yoke of Rome, and, through the instrumentality of their countryman Luther and others, received the pure and unadulterated word of God, that constituted themselves a reformed, an evangelical church, which has been denominated Lutheran." Schmucker's Portraiture, pp. 10, 11. " In the year 1507, at the age of twenty-four years, in the seclusion of monastic life, Luther, by what we call accident, but, in reality, by the ordering of Him whose empire is universal, found among the musty tomes of the convent library a long-neglected Latin Bible. This immediately became his daily counsellor. The light of inspired truth soon disclosed to him the errors and deficiency of the Romish creed, even before he could plainly discern the more excellent way. His attainments placed him, the following year, in a situation which compelled him to acquire a knowledge of the Hebrew language. In the year 1517, while engaged in the performance of his duties of a professor and ecclesiastic, particularly at the confessional, he discovered the influence of Rome's corrupt system of indulgences. He refused absolution to those who pleaded them as a substitute for penance. This of course led them to complain to the friar from whom they had procured them. A violent controversy ensued between the friar and Luther, which ultimately brought the Reformer to an open rupture with the See of Rome. At two of the principal universities, as well as at the Papal court, the indignation of the church was expressed by a public conflagration of his published writings. And in return, Luther, after previous notice, and in the presence of an immense concourse of spectators, committed the authorilative boo...