And yet, with all this manly energy and vehemence of
character, Luther, we have already seen, was no radical in
his reforms. His moderation was, at least, as conspicuous
as his energy; and we shall greatly misapprehend both him
and his work, if we do not perceive this. He was very
little of a theorist. He fought for the truth, as God had re-

• Sriefe, vol. iv. p. 149.
76 LEADERS OF T H B K E F EM A T I N.
vealed it to him. But of all the reformers, except Latimer,
none fought less for mere schemes or devices of his own
to supplant the old fabric of the church. He would rather
rebuild and purify it than supersede it. In his own lan-
guage, " he was never for throwing away the old shoes till
he had got new ones.'' Of a certain preacher who was
flying high, and carrying things out in a violent spirit of
innovation, he writes : " What good can result from all this
precipitation ? I myself preached nearly three years before
I preached such questions, while these people think to
settle the whole business in half an hour. I beg you will
enjoin the preacher to observe more moderation in future,
and to begin with making his people thoroughly understand
Jesus Christ." 1 It was this spirit of moderation that set
him resolutely against Carlstadt. Innovation for its own
sake, — innovation for the sake of uniformity in different
churches, — all that marks so intensely the later history
of Protestantism in Geneva and elsewhere, was unintel-
ligible, and would have been thoroughly uncongenial to
him.
