Which reformer got it right.?

Question

Luther on Zwingli and His Followers
Zwingli was greedy of honour . . . he had learnt nothing from me . . . Oecolampadius thought himself too learned to listen to me or to learn from me.
(Grisar, IV, 309; in Table Talk, 1540)
Zwinglians . . . are fighting against God and the sacraments as the most inveterate enemies of the Divine Word.
(Janssen, V, 220-221; LL, III, 454-456)
It would be better to announce eternal damnation than salvation after the style of Zwingli or Oecolampadius.
(Daniel-Rops, 85)
The Zwinglians believed that the Eucharist was wholly symbolic (perhaps the majority position of Protestants today). Hence, whoever believes the same would have had the foregoing said about them by Dr. Luther, who firmly held to consubstantiation, i.e., the actual Body and Blood of Christ is present in the communion along with the bread and wine.


3. Luther on Bucer
They think much of themselves, which, indeed, is the cause and wellspring of all heresies . . . Thus Zwingli and Bucer now put forward a new doctrine . . . So dangerous a thing is pride in the clergy.
A gossip . . . a miscreant through and through . . . I trust him not at all, for Paul says [Titus 3:10] 'A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, avoid.



Calvin on Luther and Lutherans
What to think of Luther I know not . . . with his firmness there is mixed up a good deal of obstinacy . . . Nothing can be safe as long as that rage for contention shall agitate us . . . Luther . . . will never be able to join along with us in . . . the pure truth of God. For he has sinned against it not only from vainglory . . . but also from ignorance and the grossest extravagance. For what absurdities he pawned upon us . . . when he said the bread is the very body! . . . a very foul error. What can I say of the partisans of that cause? Do they not romance more wildly than Marcion respecting the body of Christ? . . . Wherefore if you have an influence or authority over Martin, use it . . . that he himself submit to the truth which he is now manifestly attacking . . . Contrive that Luther . . . cease to bear himself so imperiously


I am carefully on the watch that Lutheranism gain no ground, nor be introduced into France. The best means . . . for checking the evil would be that the confession written by me . . . should be published.


5. Melanchthon on Zwingli
The timid Melanchthon launched at least one salvo against Zwingli:
Zwingli says almost nothing about Christian sanctity. He simply follows the Pelagians, the Papists and the philosophers.


6. Luther on Protestant "Heretics"
Heresiarchs . . . remain obdurate in their own conceit. They allow none to find fault with them and brook no opposition. This is the sin against the Holy Ghost for which there is no forgiveness.
(Grisar, VI, 282; WA, vol. 19, 609 ff.)
Those are heretics and apostates who follow their own ideas rather than the common tradition of Christendom, who . . . out of pure wantonness, invent new ways and methods.
(Grisar, VI, 282-283; WA, VII, 394)
Grisar adds:
In his frame of mind it became at last an impossibility for him to realise that his hostility and intolerance towards 'heretics' within his fold could redound on himself.
(Grisar, VI, 283)
We must needs decry the fanatics as damned . . . They actually dare to pick holes in our doctrine; ah, the scoundrelly rabble do a great injury to our Evangel.
(Grisar, VI, 289; EA, vol. 61, 8 ff.)
I am on the heels of the Sacramentaries and the Anabaptists; . . . I shall challenge them to fight; and I shall trample them all underfoot.
(Daniel-Rops, 86)
"Sacramentarians" or "Sacramentaries " were those who denied the Real Presence in the Eucharist (e.g., Zwingli).
Needless to say, Scripture condemns conceit: Romans 12:16: . . . "condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits." (See also Prov 3:7, Rom 11:20, 12:3, 1 Cor 3:18, 8:2, Eph 2:9).

Answer 1

The sainted Dr Martin Luther.

Answer 2

It's not important, which reformer got it right. What important is that all three reformers (Luther, Calvin and Zwingli ) agreed upon the five solas of reformation.

1 Sola gratia ("by grace alone")
2 Sola fide ("by faith alone")
3 Sola scriptura ("by Scripture alone")
4 Solus Christus ("Christ alone")
5 Soli Deo gloria ("Glory to God alone")

In other words, we are saved by “grace alone”, by “faith alone” and by “Christ alone”. We are saved to “glorify God alone” by applying “Scripture alone” to every sphere of our life.

Answer 3

You cannot reform a rotten tree. You cannot graft onto it. You have to plant a new one.