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| Samuel Taylor Coleridge |
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| The poet's nephew and author of the quotation - Henry Nelson Coleridge. His son became the first editor of the O.E.D. |
In Krauth’s
“Literature review” section at the start, we find this quote by
Henry Nelson Coleridge. What a gem!:
Coleridge is here
answering some of the aspersions cast by High-Church writers on
Luther. Referring to one of them, who had called the Commentary
on Galatians “silly,” he says:
“Shakspeare has
been called silly by Puritans, Milton worse than silly by
Prelatists and Papists, Wordsworth was long called silly by
Bonaparteans; what will not the odium theologicum or
politicum find worthless and silly? To me, perhaps from
my silliness, his Commentary appears the very Iliad of
justification by faith alone; all the fine and striking things
that have been said upon the subject, are taken from it; and
if the author preached a novel doctrine, or presented a novel
development of Scripture in this work, as Mr. Newman avers, I
think he deserves great credit for his originality. The Galatians Commentary of Luther contains, or rather is, a most spirited siege of
Babylon, and the friends of Rome like it as well as the French
like Wellington and the battle of Waterloo.”
From Biographia
Literaria, by S. T. Coleridge, edited by Henry Nelson Coleridge,
New York, 1848. quoted in: Krauth, Charles Porterfield. . Philadelphia: The
General Council Press. 1871/1899. LutheranLibrary.org. [GJ - I added a few words to make it clear that the opponents found Luther's Galatians Lectures, aka Galatians Commentary, "silly."]
