Martin Luther
ON PAPAL POWER, JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH, THE INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLE, AND
THE NATURE OF THE CLERGY
ON PAPAL POWER
The Romanists [traditional Catholics loyal to the papacy] have very cleverly built three walls around themselves. Hitherto they have protected themselves by these walls in such a way that no one has been able to reform them. As a result, the whole of Christendom has fallen abominably.
In the first place, when pressed by the temporal power they have made decrees and declared that the temporal power had no jurisdiction over them, but that, on the contrary, the spiritual power is above the temporal. In the second place, when the attempt is made to reprove them with the Scriptures, they raise the objection that only the pope may interpret the Scriptures. In the third place, if threatened with a council, their story is that no one may summon a council but the pope.
In this way they have cunningly stolen our three rods from us, that they may
go unpunished. They have [settled] themselves within the safe
stronghold of these three walls so that they can practice all the knavery and
wickedness which we see today. Even when they have been compelled to
hold a council they have weakened its power in advance by putting the princes
under oath to let them remain as they were. In addition, they have given the
pope frill authority over all decisions of a council, so that it is all the
same whether there are many councils or no councils.
They only deceive us with puppet shows and sham fights. They fear terribly for
their skin in a really free council! They have so intimidated kings and princes
with this technique that they believe it would be an offense
against God nor to be obedient to the Romanists in all their knavish and
ghoulish deceits.
The Romanists have no basis in Scripture for their claim that the pope alone
has the right to call or confirm a council. This is just their own ruling, and
it is only valid as long as it is not harmful to Christendom or contrary to the
laws of God. Now when the pope deserves punishment, this ruling no longer
obtains, for not to punish him by authority of a council is harmful to
Christendom.
Therefore, when necessity demands it, and the pope is an offense to
Christendom, the first man who is able should, as a true member 0f the whole
body, do what he can to bring about a truly free council. No one can do this so
well as the temporal authorities, especially since they are also fellow-Christians,
fellow-priests, fellow-members of the spiritual estate, fellow-
lords over all things. Whenever it is necessary or profitable they ought to
exercise the office and work which they have received from God over everyone.
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH
You may ask, “What then is the Word of God, and how shall it be used, since
there ate so many words of God?” I answer: The Apostle explains this in Romans 1.
The Word is the gospel of God concerning his Son, who was made flesh, suffered,
rose from the dead, and was glorified through the Spirit who sanctifies. To
preach Christ means to feed the soul, make it righteous, set it free, and save
it, provided it believes the preaching. Faith alone is the saving and
efficacious use of the Word of God, according to
This faith cannot exist in connection with works—that is to say, if you at
the same time claim to be justified by works, whatever their character—for that
would be the same as “limping with two different opinions” (I Kings 18:21), as
worshiping Baal and kissing one’s own hand (Job 3 1:27—28), which, as Job says,
is a very great iniquity. Therefore the moment you begin to have faith you
learn that all things in you are altogether blameworthy, sinful, and damnable, as
the Apostle says in Rom. 3(:23), “Since all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God,” and, “None is righteous, no, nor one: . . all
have turned aside, together they have gone wrong” (Rom. 3:10—12). When you have
learned this you will know that you need Christ, who suffered and rose again
for you so that, if you believe in him, you may through this faith become a new
man in so far as your sins are forgiven and you are justified by the merits of
another, namely, of Christ alone.
Since, therefore, this faith can rule only in the inner man, as Rom. 10(:10)
says, “For man believes with his heart and so is justified,” and since faith
alone justifies, it is clear that the inner man cannot be justified, freed, or
saved by any outer work or action at all, and that these works, whatever their
character, have nothing to do with this inner man. On the other hand, only
ungodliness and unbelief of heart, and no outer work, make him guilty and a
damnable servant of sin. Wherefore it ought to be the first concern of every
Christian to lay aside all confidence in works and increasingly to strengthen
faith alone and through faith to grow in the knowledge, not of works, but of
Christ Jesus, who suffered and rose for him, as Peter teaches in the last
chapter of his first Epistle (1 Pet. 5:10). No other work makes a Christian..
Our faith in Christ does not free us from works but from false opinions
concerning works, that is, from the foolish presumption that justification is
acquired by works. Faith redeems, corrects, and preserves our consciences so
that we know that righteousness does not consist in works, although works
neither can nor ought to be wanting; just as we cannot be without food and
drink and all the works of this mortal body, yet our righteousness is not in
them, but in faith; and yet those works of the body are not to be despised or
neglected on that account. In this world we are bound by the needs of our
bodily life, but we are not righteous because of them. “My kingship is not of
this world” (John 18:36), says Christ. He does not, however, say, “My kingship
is not here, that is, in this world.” And Paul says, “Though we live in the
world we are not carrying on a worldly war” (II Cor. 10:3),
and in Gal. 2(:20), “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the
Son of God.” Thus what we do, live, and are in works and ceremonies,
we do because of the necessities of this life and of the effort to rule out
body. Nevertheless we are righteous, not in these, but in the faith of the Son
of God.
THE INTERPRETATION
OF THE BIBLE AND THE NATURE
OF THE CLERGY
They (the Roman Catholic Popes) want to be the only masters of Scriptures. .
. . They assume sole authority for themselves and would persuade us with
insolent juggling of words that the Pope, whether he be
bad or good, cannot err in matters of faith.
… They cannot produce a letter to prove that the interpretation of Scripture
. . . belongs to the Pope alone. They themselves have usurped this power.. . and though they allege that
this power was conferred on Peter when the keys were given to him, it is plain
enough that the keys were not given to Peter alone but to the entire body of
Christians (Matt. 16:19; 18:18).
…Every baptized Christian is a priest already, not by appointment or
ordination from the Pope or any other man, but because Christ Himself has
begotten him as a priest . . . in baptism.
The Pope has usurped the term “priest” for his anointed and tonsured hordes [clergy
and monks). By this means they have separated themselves from the ordinary
Christians and have called themselves uniquely the “clergy of God,” God’s
heritage and chosen people who must help other Christians by their sacrifice
and worship. . . . Therefore the Pope argues that he alone has the right and
power to ordain and do what he will.
[But] the preaching office is no more than a public service which happens to
be conferred on someone by the entire congregation all the members of which are
priests.
… The fact that a pope or bishop anoints, makes tonsures, ordains, consecrates
[makes holy], and prescribes garb different from those of the laity. . . nevermore makes a Christian and a spiritual man. Accordingly,
through baptism all of us are consecrated to the priesthood, as St. Peter says .
. . (I Peter 2:9).
To make it still clearer, if a small group of pious Christian laymen were taken captive and settled in a wilderness and had among them no priest consecrated by a bishop, if they were to agree to choose one from their midst, married or unmarried, and were to charge him with the office of baptizing, saying Mass, absolving [forgiving of sins), and preaching, such a man would be as truly a priest as he would if all bishops and popes had consecrated him.