The churches were debating the Apocrypha books for centuries. There was the Augustine view vs. the Jerome View. So Luther did not “tear out” 7 books from the Bible; they were in debate for centuries and they were not dogmatically decided to be “deutero-canonical” until the Council of Trent from 1545-1563.
Cardinal Thomas Cajetan was sent by the Pope to Germany to question Luther, he opposed Luther in 1518 and questioned him on his books and questioning of the Pope and indulgences.
And yet, this great Roman Catholic Cardinal and representative of the Pope himself, agreed with Jerome and Luther: (also Athanasius, Melito’s OT canon (comes close), Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome in 600 AD)
In 1532, Cajetan wrote his Commentary on All the Authentic Historical Books of the Old Testament (dedicated to Pope Clement VII ). In this work, Cajetan leaves out the entirety of the Apocrypha since he did not consider it to be Canonical:
“Here we close our commentaries on the historical books of the Old Testament. For the rest (that is, Judith, Tobit, and the books of Maccabees) are counted by St Jerome out of the canonical books, and are placed amongst the Apocrypha, along with Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus, as is plain from the Prologus Galeatus. Nor be thou disturbed, like a raw scholar, if thou shouldest find anywhere, either in the sacred councils or the sacred doctors, these books reckoned as canonical. For the words as well of councils as of doctors are to be reduced to the correction of Jerome. Now, according to his judgment, in the epistle to the bishops Chromatius and Heliodorus, these books (and any other like books in the canon of the Bible) are not canonical, that is, not in the nature of a rule for confirming matters of faith. Yet, they may be called canonical, that is, in the nature of a rule for the edification of the faithful, as being received and authorised in the canon of the Bible for that purpose. By the help of this distinction thou mayest see thy way clearly through that which Augustine says, and what is written in the provincial council of Carthage.” (Thomas Cajetan, embolding my emphasis)
The churches were debating the Apocrypha books for centuries. There was the Augustine view vs. the Jerome View. So Luther did not “tear out” 7 books from the Bible; they were in debate for centuries and they were not dogmatically decided to be “deutero-canonical” until the Council of Trent from 1545-1563.
Cardinal Thomas Cajetan was sent by the Pope to Germany to question Luther, he opposed Luther in 1518 and questioned him on his books and questioning of the Pope and indulgences.
And yet, this great Roman Catholic Cardinal and representative of the Pope himself, agreed with Jerome and Luther: (also Athanasius, Melito’s OT canon (comes close), Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome in 600 AD)
In 1532, Cajetan wrote his Commentary on All the Authentic Historical Books of the Old Testament (dedicated to Pope Clement VII ). In this work, Cajetan leaves out the entirety of the Apocrypha since he did not consider it to be Canonical:
“Here we close our commentaries on the historical books of the Old Testament. For the rest (that is, Judith, Tobit, and the books of Maccabees) are counted by St Jerome out of the canonical books, and are placed amongst the Apocrypha, along with Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus, as is plain from the Prologus Galeatus. Nor be thou disturbed, like a raw scholar, if thou shouldest find anywhere, either in the sacred councils or the sacred doctors, these books reckoned as canonical. For the words as well of councils as of doctors are to be reduced to the correction of Jerome. Now, according to his judgment, in the epistle to the bishops Chromatius and Heliodorus, these books (and any other like books in the canon of the Bible) are not canonical, that is, not in the nature of a rule for confirming matters of faith. Yet, they may be called canonical, that is, in the nature of a rule for the edification of the faithful, as being received and authorised in the canon of the Bible for that purpose. By the help of this distinction thou mayest see thy way clearly through that which Augustine says, and what is written in the provincial council of Carthage.” (Thomas Cajetan, embolding my emphasis)
Luther certainly did mutilate the Bible. The books he ripped out were accepted by the Church as the Word of God.