e of philosophical sin, in
accordance with which actual attention to the sinfulness of an act when
it is being committed is requisite to its sinfulness for the person
committing it, was widely advocated by members of the society. The
repudiation of some of the most scandalous maxims of Jesuit writers by
later writers, or the placing of books containing scandalous maxims on
the Index, does not relieve the society or the Roman Catholic Church
from responsibility, as such books must have received authoritative
approval before publication, and the censuring of them does not
necessarily involve an adverse attitude toward the teaching itself, but
way be a more measure of expediency." (A. H. Newman, in _New
Schaff-Herzog Encycl.,_ 6, 146.)

18. Luther, Repudiates the Ten Commandments?

In Luther's correspondence with Weller there occurs a remark to the
effect that Weller must put the Decalog out of his mind. Similar
statements occur in great number throughout Luther's writings. In some
of these statements Luther speaks in terms of deep scorn and contempt of
the Law, and considers it the greatest affront that can be offered
Christians to place them under the Law of Moses. He declares that Moses
must be regarded by Christians as if he were a heretic, excommunicated
by the Church, and assigns him to the gallows. Some of the strongest
invectives of this kind are found in his exposition of the Epistle to
the Galatians. These stern utterances of Luther against the Law serve
the Catholics as the basis for their charge that Luther is the most
destructive spirit that has arisen within the Church. He is said to have
destroyed the only perfect norm of right and wrong by his violent
onslaughts on Moses. Once the commandments of God are abrogated, the
feeling of duty and responsibility, they argue, is plucked from the
hearts of men, and license and vice rush in upon the world with the
force of a springtide.

The reader will remember what has been said in a previous chapter about
Luther's labors to expound and apply the divine Law, also about the
intimate and loving relation which he maintained to the Ten Commandments
to the end of his life. Luther has spoken of Moses as a teacher of true
holiness in terms of unbounded admiration and praise. Ho declares the
writings of Moses the principal part of our Bible, because all the
prophets and apostles have drawn their teaching from Moses and
have expanded the teaching of Moses. Christ Himself