LUCIANISTS, or LUCAN- LUKEWARMNESS, appli. ISTS, a sect so called from Lucia-ed to the affections, indifference, nus, or Lucanus, a heretic of the second century, being a disciple of Marcion, whose errors he followed, adding some new ones to them. Epiphanes says he abandoned Marcion, teaching that people ought not to marry, for fear of enriching the Creator; and yet other authors mention, that he held this error in common with Marcion and other Gnostics. He denied the immortality of the soul, asserting it to be material. There was another sect of Lucianists, who appeared some time after the Arians. They taught, that the Father had been a Father always, and that he had the name even before he begot the Son, as having in him the power and faculty of generation; and in this manner they accounted for the eternity of the Son. LUCIFERIANS, a sect who adhered to the schism of Lucifer, bishop of Cagliari, in the fourth century, who was banished by the emperor Constantius, for having defended the Nicene doctrine concerning the three persons in the Godhead. It is said, also, that they believed the soul to be corporeal, and to be transmitted from the father to the children. The Luciferians were numerous in Gaul, Spain, Egypt, &c. The occasion of this schism was, that Lucifer would not allow any acts he had done to be abolished. There were but two Luciferian bishops, but a great number of priests and deacons. The Luciferians bore a great aversion to the Arians. or want of ardor. In respect to religion, hardly any thing can be more culpable than this spirit.If there be a God possessed of unspeakable rectitude in his own nature, and unbounded goodness towards his creatures, what can be more inconsistent and unbecoming than to be frigid and indifferent in our devotions to him? Atheism, in some respects, cannot be worse than lukewarmness. The Atheist disbelieves the existence of a God, and therefore cannot worship him at all; the lukewarm owns the existence, sovereignty, and goodness of the Supreme Being, but denies him that fervour of affection, that devotedness of heart, and activity of service, which the excellency of his nature demands, and the authority of his word requires. Such a character, therefore, is represented as absolutely loathsome to God, and obnoxious to his wrath, Rev.iii, 15,16. The general signs of a lukewarm spirit are such as these: Neglect of private prayer; a preference of worldly to religious company; a lax attendance on public ordinances; omission or careless perusal of God's word; a zeal for some appendages of religion, while languid about religion itself; a backwardness to promote the cause of God in the world, and a rashness of spirit in censuring those who are desirous to be useful. If we enquire the causes of such a spirit, we shall find them to beworldly prosperity; the influence of carnal relatives and acquaint : ance; indulgence of secret sins; the fear of man, and sitting under an unfaithful ministry. The inconsistency of it appears if we consider, that it is highly unreasonable; dishonourable to God; incompatible with the genius of the gospel; a barrier to improvement; a death blow to usefulness; a direct opposition to the commands of scripture; and tends to the greatest misery. To overcome such a state of mind, we should consider how offensive it is to God; how incongruous with the very idea and nature of true religion; how injurious to peace and felicity of mind; how ungrateful to Jesus Christ, whose whole life was labour for us and our salvation; how grievous to the Holy Spirit; how dreadful an example to those who have no religion; how unlike the saints of old, and even to our enemies in the worst of causes; how dangerous to our immortal souls, since it is indicative of our want of love to God, and exposes us to just condemnation, Amos vi, 1. serious impressions, and tinctured with somewhat of that religious melancholy which delights in the solitude and devotion of a monastic life, he retired into a convent of Augustinian friars; where he acquired great reputation not only for piety, but for love of knowledge, and unwearied application to study. The cause of this retirement is said to have been, that he was once struck by lightning, and his companion killed by his side by the same flash. He had been taught the scholastic philosophy which was in vogue in those days, and made considerable progress in it: but happening to find a copy of the Bible which lay neglected in the library of his monastery, he applied himself to the study of it with such eagerness and assiduity, as quite astonished the monks; and increased his reputation for sanctity so much, that he was chosen professor first of philosophy, and afterwards of theology, in Wittemberg, on the Elbe, where Frederic, elector of Saxony, had founded an universitv. While Luther continued to enjoy the highest reputation for sanctity and learning, Tetzel, a Dominican friar, came to Wittemberg in order to publish indulgences. Luther beheld his success with great concern; and having first inveighed against indulgences from the pulpit, he afterwards publish LUTHERANS, those Christians who follow the opinion of Martin Luther, the celebrated reformer of the church, in the sixteenth century. In order that we may trace the rise and progress of Lutheranism, we must here refer to the life of Luther himself. Luther was a native of Eisleben, in Saxony, and born in 1483. Though his parents were poor, he received ninety-five theses, containing ed a learned education, during the progress of which he gave many indications of uncommon vigour and acuteness of genius. As his mind was naturally susceptible of his sentiments on that subject. These he proposed not as points fully established, but as subjects of enquiry and disputation. He appointed a day on which the learned were invited to impugn them either in person or by writing; and to the whole he subjoined solemn protestations of his high respect for the apostolic see, and of his implicit submission to its authority. No opponent appeared at the time prefixed: the theses spread over Germany with astonishing rapidity, and were read with the greatest eager ness. Though Luther met with no opposition for some little time after he began to publish his new doctrines, it was not long before many zealous champions arose to defend those opinions with which the wealth and power of the clergy were so strictly connected. Their cause, however, was by no means promoted by these endeavours: the people began to call in question even the authority of the canon law, and of the pope himself. The court of Rome at first despised these new doctrines and disputes; but at last the attention of the pope being raised by the great success of the reformer, and the complaints of his adversaries, Luther was summoned, in the month of July, 1518, to appear at Rome, within sixty days, before the auditor of the chamber. One of Luther's adversaries, named Prierias, who had written against him, was appointed to examine his doctrines, and to decide concerning them. The pope wrote at the same time to the elector of Saxony, beseeching him not to protect a man whose heretical and profane tenets were so shocking to pious ears; and enjoined the provincial of the Au VOL. II. F gustinians to check, by his authority, the rashness of an arrogant monk, which brought disgrace upon their order, and gave offence and disturbance to the whole church. From these letters, and the appointment of his open enemy Prierias to be his judge, Luther easily saw what sentence he might expect at Rome; and therefore discovered the utmost solicitude to have his cause tried in Germany, and before a less suspected tribunal. He wrote a submissive letter to the pope, in which he promised an unreserved obedience to his will, for as yet he entertained no doubt of the divine original of the pope's authority; and by the intercession of the other professors, Cajetan, the pope's legate in Germany, was appointed to hear and determine the cause. Luther appeared before him without hesitation; but Cajetan thought it below his dignity to dispute the point with a person so much his inferior in rank; and therefore required him, by virtue of the apostolic powers with which he was clothed, to retract the errors which he had uttered with regard to indulgences and the nature of faith, and to abstain for the future from the publication of new and dangerous opinions; and at the last forbad him to appear in his presence, unless he proposed to comply with what had been required of him. This haughty and violent manner of proceeding, together with some other circumstances, gave Luther's friends such strong reasons to suspect that even the imperial safe-conduct would not be covered great concern for Luther's safety. He able to protect him from the legate's power and resentment, that they prevailed on him secretly to withdraw from Augsburg, where he had attended the legate, and to return to his own country. But before his departure, according to a form of which there had been some examples, he prepared a solemn appeal from the legate, ill-informed at that time concerning his cause, to the pope, when he should reeeive more full intimation with respect to it. Cajetan, enraged at Luther's abrupt retreat, and at ry of his enemies could inflict; The situation of our reformer, in the mean time, became daily more and more alarming. knew very well what were the motives which induced the elector to afford him protection, and that he could by no means depend on a continuance of his friendship. If he should be obliged to quit Saxony, he had no other asylum, and must stand exposed to whatever punishment the rage or bigot and so ready were his adversaries to condemn him, that he had the publication of his appeal, wrote to the elector of Saxony, complaining of both; and re- been declared a heretic at Rome quiring him, as he regarded the peace of the church, or the authority of its head, either to send that seditious monk a prisoner to Rome, or to banish him out of his territories. Frederic had hitherto, from political motives, protected Luther, as thinking he might be of use in checking the enormous power of the see of Rome; and though all Germany resounded with his fame, the elector had never yet admitted him into his presence. But upon this demand made by the cardinal, which he affirmed to be the before the expiration of the sixty days allowed him in the citation for making his appearance. Notwithstanding all this, however, he discovered no symptoms of timidity or remissness; but continued to vindicate his own conduct and opinions, and to inveigh against those of his adversaries with more vehemence than ever. Being convinced, therefore, that the pope would soon proceed to the most violent measures against him, he appealed to a general council, representative of the Catholic church, and superior in power to the pope, who, being a fallible man, might err, as St. Peter, the most perfect of his predecessors, had done. it became necessary to throw off somewhat of his former reserve. He had been at great expence and bestowed much attention on founding a new university, an object of considerable importance to every German prince; and foreThe court of Rome was equalseeing how fatal a blow the re-ly assiduous, in the mean time, to moval of Luther would be to its crush the author of these new reputation, he not only declined doctrines, which gave them so complying with either of the much uneasiness. A bull was ispope's requests, but openly dis-sued by the pope of a date prior to cable issue. The manner in which these were conducted having given our reformer many opportunities of observing the corruption of the court of Rome, its obstinacy in adhering to established errors, and Luther's appeal, in which he mag-place for eighteen months, though nified the virtues of indulgences, perpetual negotiations were carand subjected to the heaviest ec-ried on during this interval, in orclesiastical censures all who pre- der to bring the matter to an amisumed to teach a contrary doctrine. Such a clear decision of the sovereign pontiff against him might have been very fatal to Luther's cause, had not the death of the emperor Maximilian, which happened on January 17, its indifference about truth, how1519, contributed to give matters ever clearly proposed or strongly a different turn. Both the prin-proved, he began, in 1520, to ciples and interest of Maximilian utter some doubts with regard to had prompted him to support the the divine original of the papal authority, which he publicly disputed with Eccius, one of his most learned and formidable antagonists. The dispute was indecisive, both parties claiming the victory; but it must have been very mortifying to the partizans of the Romish church to hear such an essential point of their doctrine publicly attacked. The papal authority being once suspected, Luther proceeded to push on his inquiries and attacks from one doctrine to another, till at last he began to shake the firmest foundations on which the wealth and power of the church were established. Leo then began to perceive that there were no hopes of reclaiming such an incorrigible heretic, and therefore authority of the see of Rome; but, in consequence of his death, the vicariate of that part of Germany which is governed by the Saxon laws devolved to the elector of Saxony; and, under the shelter of his friendly administration, Luther himself enjoyed tranquillity; and his opinions took such root in different places, that they could never afterwards be eradicated. At the same time, as the election of an emperor was a point more interesting to the pope (Leo X) than a theological controversy which he did not understand, and of which he could not foresee the consequences, he was so extremely solicitous not to irritate a prince of such considerable influence in the electoral college as Frederic, that he discovered a prepared to pronounce the sengreat unwillingness to pronounce tence of excommunication against the sentence of excommunication him. The college of cardinals against Luther, which his adversaries continually demanded with the most clamorous importunity. From the reason just now given, and Leo's natural aversion to severe measures, a suspension of proceeding against Luther took was often assembled, in order to prepare the sentence with due deliberation; and the ablest canonists were consulted how it might be expressed with unexceptionable formality. At last it was issued on the 15th of June, 1520. |