Facts about Luther

As the author states at the end of his book, having previously well established all the points he cites, 'In this little work we have had no desire to libel Luther's person, distort his doctrine or misrepresent his life work. We would willingly allow him to remain in his grave, but as his friends insist on resurrecting him, we have no alternative but to show the disciples of a systme which is the child born of a great lie and nursed and fostered in heresy and infamy that Luther by his own works and teachings was a malicious falsifier of God's truth, a blasphemer, a libertine, a revolutionist, a hater of religious vows, a disgrace to the clerical calling, an enemy of domestic felicity, the father of divorce, the advocate of polygamy and the propagator of immorality and open licentiousness. These charges are serious, but we beg to remind you that we have not interpreted or edited Luther--as he took the liberty to do with the Scriptures and as his friends did in the case of Melanchthon's letter to Luther and the modern issues of The Table Talk. We have merely quoted him from reliable sources and made him his own accuser and judge. The genuineness and authenticity of his statements on religious and moral questions can neither be doubted nor refuted. If any surprise or scandal in exposing his degrading and debasing sentiments results, the blame rests not with those who picture the man as he really was, but with Luther himself and his advocates, who have for the last four centuries deceived the world by representing him as a 'Reformer' and a 'God-inspired man.'