LUT 



LUT 



lustre, the metallic and common. See 

 Thompson's Chemistry. 



LUTE, a musical instrument with 

 strings. The lute consists of four parts, 

 viz. the table ; the body or belly, which 

 has nine or ten sides ; the neck, which 

 has nine or ten stops or divisions, 

 marked with strings ; and the head, or 

 cross, where the screw for raising and 

 lowering the strings to a proper ' pitch 

 of tone are fixed. In the middle of the 

 table there is a rose or passage for the 

 sound ; there is also a bridge that the 

 strings are fastened to, and a piece of 

 ivory, between the head and the neck, 

 to which the other extremities of the 

 strings are fitted. In playing, the strings 

 are struck with the right hand, and with 

 the left the stops are pressed. The lutes 

 of Bologna are esteemed the best, on ac- 

 count of the wood, which is said to have 

 an uncommon disposition for producing a 

 sweet sound. 



LUTES. See LABOHATORT. 



LUTHERANS, so called from their 

 founder, Martin Luther, an Augustine 

 friar, and one of the earliest of the re- 

 formers. Some of the doctrines of 

 the Lutherans, as they were originally 

 taught by their founder, seem to have dif- 

 fered in but a very slight degree from 

 those of the church of Rome, from whom 

 Luther dissented. For that reformer held 

 sacred, or at least connived at, many 

 things which Calvin, Zuinglius, and the 

 rest of the reformers, abhorred as so ma- 

 ny of the gaudy vestments and abomina- 

 tions of the Whore of Babylon. Con- 

 cerning transubstantiation, Luther seems 

 to have differed more in word than in sub- 

 stance from the Church of Rome. He 

 held that the body and blood of Christ 

 were materially present in the Eucharist, 

 though he professed his ignorance of the 

 manner in which that presence was ac- 

 complished. It is true, he laid aside the 

 offensive term transubstantiation, and sub- 

 stituted that of consubstantiation in the 

 room of it ; but whether the bread and 

 wine are, as the Catholics declare, tran- 

 substantiated into the real body and blood 

 of Christ, or whether, as Luther asserted, 

 the material elements are mystically con- 

 substantiated with the body and blood of 

 the Saviour, by the consecration of the 

 priest, it is clear the Catholics and the 

 Lutherans both held the doctrine of the 

 real presence. 



Luther also tolerated the use of images, 

 altars, wax tapers, the form of exorcism, 

 and private confession. But the grand 

 and leading doctrine of Lutheranism, and 



that on which the permanent foundation 

 of the reformation was laid, is the right of 

 private judgment in matters of religion. 

 " To the defence of this proposition," 

 says Mr. Roscoe, the candid and elegant 

 biographer of Leo the Tenth, " Luther 

 was at all times ready to devote his learn- 

 ing, his talents, his repose, his character, 

 and his life ; and the great and imperish- 

 able merit of this reformer consists in his 

 having demonstrated it by such argu- 

 ments, as neither the efforts of his adver- 

 saries, nor his own subsequent conduct, 

 have been able either to confute or inva- 

 lidate." 



No sooner, however, had Luther suc- 

 ceeded in effecting a separation from the 

 Church of Rome, than he set himself to 

 establish another system of religious go- 

 vernment ; in which he manifested, that, 

 however he might abominate many of the 

 doctrines and practices of the Papal go- 

 vernment, he still retained no small por- 

 tion of that spirit of domination by which 

 the old church had so long been charac- 

 terized. The odium theologicwn threaten- 

 ed to receive new strength with the re- 

 formation, and, under the auspices of Cal- 

 vin and Luther, the religious world seem- 

 ed likely to derive no other benefit from 

 the reformation than that of a change of 

 masters. It was more easy to change the 

 head than the heart ; and the language of 

 liberty afforded a ready but a miserable 

 substitute for liberty itself. Nor, indeed, 

 did Luther at all times even make use of 

 such language as might have been ex- 

 pected from one who had so ably main- 

 tained that great and leading truth*, which 

 inculcates tl>e unfettered rights of pri- 

 vate judgment. The man who could stig- 

 matize the learned and mild Erasmus, 

 who had defended the freedom of the hu- 

 man will, as "an exasperated viper;" 

 " a vain-glorious animal," seemed but ill 

 qualified to emancipate the religious 

 world from the fetters of spiritual tyran- 

 ny. Nor was it very flattering to the re- 

 formation, that one of its ablest defenders 

 and founders could, in his zeal for the om- 

 nipotence of faith, declare that the Epis- 

 tle of James, in which the necessity of 

 good works is stated and enforced, is, in 

 comparison with the writings of Peter 

 and Paul, a mere book of straw ! These 

 were but ill omens of the success of the 

 reformation. Whilst Luther was engaged 

 in his opposition to the Church of Rome, 

 he asserted the right of private judgment 

 in matters of faith, with the confidence 

 and courage of a martyr ; but no sooner 

 had he freed himself and his followers 

 from the ecclesiastical tyranny of the 



