{"id":42231,"date":"2021-11-10T05:01:12","date_gmt":"2021-11-10T10:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=42231"},"modified":"2021-11-09T21:18:37","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T02:18:37","slug":"making-sense-of-prophecies-3-reconsidering-lutius-gratiano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2021\/11\/making-sense-of-prophecies-3-reconsidering-lutius-gratiano\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Sense of Prophecies (3): Reconsidering \u201cLutius Gratiano\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the prophecy of \u201cLutius Gratiano,\u201d we have the unusual opportunity to observe the formation and development of a prophecy in some detail from its origin in the writings of Samuel Lutz (1674-1750), a Swiss pietist preacher, to their refraction through the memory of Jacob Spori (1847-1903), a Swiss educator and convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and its circulation among the Latter-day Saints over the following 128 years.<\/p>\n

Jacob Spori, born in 1847 in Bern, taught at the secondary school in Oberwil and later served as the school\u2019s principal. After his baptism, he was involved in Latter-day Saint missionary efforts in Europe and emigrated to the western United States. In southeastern Idaho, he was the first principle of the Bannock Stake Academy, which initially offered elementary-level courses. In 1891, he moved to Brigham Young Academy in Provo, where he taught German, Latin, French and mathematics.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1893, Spori published an article in The Juvenile Instructor<\/em> that has become known as the source of the \u201cLutius Gratiano\u201d prophecy.[2]<\/a> Several passages in Spori\u2019s article are striking in their similarity to the tropes of late medieval and early modern prophetic texts previously described. Spori first mentions \u201cBasilius the Great\u201d who had died in 570 AD (St. Basil of Caesarea actually died in 379 AD, if that is who Spori meant). Spori writes:<\/p>\n

Basilius wrote a book about the true state of things, which book, however, he did not make public; the clergy would have destroyed it. So he hid it in a church under an altar, where it was not found until the time of the Reformation in Germany.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Spori also mentions Paracelsus (1493-1541), Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486-1535; \u201ctreated in a work of five volumes about theosophy\u201d and affirming that \u201cthe true priesthood was taken away from the earth\u201d), and an unnamed author of a long passage confirming, among many other things, that Christ\u2019s \u201cdoctrines were changed for a long and dark period: but they will be restored in the first half of the nineteenth century<\/em>.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Spori quotes another unnamed theosophist as saying, \u201cIn 300 years, my book will be translated by a people that will understand me\u201d; the book was written \u201cabout 1599 or 1600.\u201d This leads directly to the famous prophecy.<\/p>\n

Another, Lutius Gratiano, in his \u201cHope of Zion\u201d (printed 1739, in Basel), says:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe old true gospel and the powers thereof are lost. False doctrines prevail throughout every church and all the lands. All we can do is to exhort the people to fear God, to be just, to shun evil, to pray, pray, pray. Prayer and purity may bring an angel to visit a deeply distressed soul. But I tell you, that in 100 years God will have spoken again; He will restore the old Church again. I see a little people led by a Prophet and faithful Elders. They are persecuted, burnt out and murdered; but in a valley that lies towards a great lake<\/em> they will grow up, make a beautiful (herrlich) land, have a temple of magnificent splendor, have all the old Priesthood, with Apostles, Prophets, Teachers and Deacons. From every nation the believers will be gathered by swift messengers, and then God, the Omnipotent, will speak to the disobedient nations with thunder, lightnings and destructions never heard of in history.\u201d<\/p>\n

I cannot give in English the terrific power that peals forth from Gratiano\u2019s original (German). The healings and wonderful doings of this unique man were so astonishing, his preachings so powerful, th[a]t he was invited all over the land to preach, and even today old men in the Swiss mountains remember having heard their sires talk about that man.[4]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[The whole quotation was too long for the presentation, so I only included around the first half. Much of what follows gets deep into the weeds of Mormon Studies and was not part of the presentation.]<\/p>\n

The prophecy of \u201cLutius Gratiano\u201d has been most thoroughly treated by Paul Pixton.[5]<\/a> Pixton\u2019s article describes a variety of efforts to find this supposed prophecy; the identification of \u201cLutius Gratiano\u201d with Christophilus Gratianus, the pen name of Samuel Lutz, author of Die Hoffnung Zions<\/em>; denials of the prophecy\u2019s authenticity by various sources; and its continued circulation anyway.<\/p>\n

But Pixton\u2019s 1985 article suffers from a number of flaws that have obscured the origin of \u201cLutius Gratiano.\u201d<\/p>\n

First, Pixton doesn\u2019t address Lutz\u2019s work directly. This is understandable, as eighteenth-century books do not typically circulate by interlibrary loan, even assuming that a copy was available in North America, and reading through hundreds of pages of black-letter type on microfilm would have been an arduous task for little gain. In 1985, Pixton did not enjoy the easy access to digital editions and online facsimiles that we have today. The question naturally arises, however: what did Lutz actually write?<\/p>\n

In addition, Pixton characterizes Lutz merely as a prolific pietist writer and preacher, omitting any reference to the strongly eschatological outlook of Lutz\u2019s work. But this is an important element of Lutz\u2019s writing that has been well documented.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

More seriously, Pixton\u2019s article omits any mention of the passages from Die Hoffnung Zions<\/em> that early Latter-day Saints who looked into the prophecy\u2019s origins did<\/em> identify as prophetic, despite their confirmation that the prophecy of \u201cLutius Gratiano\u201d did not exist as such.<\/p>\n

Pixton cites the unsuccessful efforts of James Learing McMurrin and Rulon S. Wells in the early 1900s to locate the prophecy and their publication of notes on the prophecy\u2019s non-existence. Here\u2019s how Pixton summarizes Wells\u2019 opinion of\u00a0 Lutz\u2019s Die Hoffnung Zions<\/em>:<\/p>\n

While recognizing that the book was written by a devout Christian, he concluded that it contained nothing that would justify its being cited as the source from which the \u2018prophecy\u2019 was drawn.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He further quotes Wells as stating (the ellipses and brackets here are Pixton\u2019s):<\/p>\n

There is nothing in \u2026 Zion\u2019s Hoffnung<\/em> \u2026 that would warrant [its connection with the \u201cprophecy\u201d], and let us hope that it will not be used, either at home or abroad in the mission field, in support of the great work of the Master.[7]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pixton provides a long quotation from McMurrin\u2019s article and states that McMurrin<\/p>\n

was equally emphatic that the labors of President Louis S. Cardon and the elders of the Swiss Mission had been unable to reveal the existence of any passages in the latter work which corresponded to the \u2018prophecy.\u2019[8]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But in both cases, Pixton\u2019s citations omit key information, creating the impression that both McMurrin and Wells had found nothing of interest. Well\u2019s dim view of \u201cLutius Gratiano,\u201d however, was coupled with his finding that \u201cat times [Lutz\u2019s Hoffnung Zions<\/em>] was almost prophetic.\u201d Wells included a photographic reproduction of a passage from Die Hoffnung Zions<\/em> provided by a former president of the Swiss Mission, David L. McDonald, who had also read through Die Hoffnung Zions<\/em> and had found a \u201cparagraph which to him seemed prophetic.\u201d Wells concedes that this passage<\/p>\n

may well be regarded as prophetic, although much of it is found in the Holy Scriptures, from which, no doubt, the author gathered his information. It is, however, on that account, none the less, a prophecy, the fulfillment of which we are witnessing, in our own day.[9]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The outcome of McMurrin\u2019s search for \u201cLutius Gratiano\u201d in Die Hoffnung Zions <\/em>was similar: there was, on the one hand, \u201cno such prophecy.\u201d[10]<\/a> On the other hand, McMurrin discovered \u201cmany interesting items\u201d that he cites in English translation, including (these are my excerpts of longer translations)<\/p>\n