Anno 1536.
Translated from Latin.
(1) Next to the authority of Christ, no authority can be equal to that of the apostles and prophets.
2. all other successors must be taken for disciples of the same only.
3. the apostles had (not only according to their kind [in specie] but also according to their person)
after [in individuo]) the certain promise of the Holy Spirit.
4 Therefore, since they should teach (tradere) the articles of faith, they alone are called the foundation of the Church.
5. no followers have had the promise of the Holy Spirit for their person.
6 Therefore, it does not follow that the apostles were able to do this or that, so their successors can do the same.
7. but in all that they teach or do.
*) This disputation is found in Latin in the Wittenberg collections of Luther's disputations etc. of 1538 and 1558; then in the Wittenberg (1550), lou". I, toi. 398d; in the Jena (1579), ?om. I, toi. 515 and in the Erlanger, ovp. vur. urZ., vol. 1 V, p. 417; German in the Eisleben collection, vol. II, p. 362; in the Altenburger, vol. VI, p. 1043 and in the Leipziger, vol. XXI, p. 141. We have translated according to the Jenaer.
1768 v.". iv. 417-419. 184. What power and authority a concilium has. W. xix. 2202-2207. 1769
they must follow the reputation of the apostles and bring the same in return.
8. as Peter says [1 Petr. 4:11]: when they speak, they are to speak it as the word of God; they are to carry out their ministry as from the wealth that God provides.
9 For prophecy is not produced by human will [2 Petr. 1, 21.], no matter how high a man is (in quocunque gradu).
10. but the people of God are driven by the Holy Spirit, so that they do not explain the holy Scriptures from their own interpretation.
(11) If therefore the followers do not follow the fundamentum of the apostles, nor observe it, they are heretics or antichristians, as such people who are lost outside the fundamentum.
(12) Bishops can therefore err in their assembly or in a concilium, just like other people, whether they are in office (pudlioi) or private persons.
(13) But if they do not err, it is by chance, either by the merit of some holy man among them, or by the merit of the church, but not by the authority of their assembly.
14) How the Council of Nicaea escaped error through the ministry of one man, Paphnutius, when Christ bestowed this upon His Church by grace.
15 For the Holy Spirit is not bound by any promise to the assembly of bishops or a council, nor can they prove it.
16 Therefore they proudly and falsely boast that I do not say blasphemously that they are regularly gathered in the Holy Spirit.
17. Who makes them or us certain that the Holy Spirit is necessarily bound to their assembly?
18. to assemble is easy, but in the Holy Spirit they cannot assemble if they do not follow the reason of the apostles, and do not act their thoughts, but what is similar to faith (fidei analogiam).
19 But in this they speak rightly, that they represent (repraesentant) the general church, for
they are not necessarily the church, but more often they mean (repraesentant) only the church.
20. and if they only signify the church, then they are the church, just as a painted man is a man, that is, only representing.
21. if they are something more (that is, a true church), it happens by chance (as said), not by force of the representing church.
22 The histories testify that the concilia were often only a representative (repraesentantem) church, but rarely the true church.
Yes, a council is always a representative church, if one speaks of it in itself, but, as something accidental (per accidens), it is the true church.
24 Thus, no one is required to believe the decisions of a representative (repraesentativae) church, that is, the concilia, unless they judge and speak according to the apostles' writings, which happens by chance (casu).
(25) All other [conciliar] churches are nothing but representational (repraesentativae) churches or painted churches, which can be applauded if they are not godless.
26 And they themselves say that a man may contradict a whole council if he has a better reason or scripture.
27 They say this, but lie in it, since they deny and condemn this very thing in the strongest terms.
(28) Even if an angel came from heaven, they would not suffer themselves to be contradicted, nor would they hear countless people testify like Paphnutius.
At the Council of Nicaea, One Paphnutius resisted the Council, but was not burned, but commended.
At the Costnitz Council, two Paphnutii, 1) armed with the Holy Scriptures, resisted, but were not vowed, but burned.
1) John Hus and Jerome of Prague.
To this section of the concilia belong the following writings, which are included in the old edition of Walch in the 16th volume:
a. Luther's Preface from the Concilium at Gangra in Paphlagonia, held 1200 years ago. Anno 1537.
Walch, old edition, vol. XVI, 2533.
b. Luther's writing, why and how a Christian Concilium should be free.
Anno 1537.
Walch, old edition, vol. XVI, 2566.
c. Luther's writing about the conciliis and churches. Anno 1539.