January or February 1524.
Translated from Latin.
To the Most Serene Prince and Lord, Albrecht, Margrave of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia, some answers of D. Martin Luther about the Pope, which Georg Spalatin presented to His Serene Highness at the Imperial Diet in Nuremberg. Anno 1524. 1) Most Serene Prince, Most Gracious Lord! I am sending Your Serene Highness my response to the articles presented.
The first article.
Whether Christ built his church on Peter and his successors, the popes?
Response. No, but only to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and this is proven:
First, from 1 Cor. 3:11: "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."
Second, from 2 Cor. 4:5: "For we preach not ourselves, but JESUS Christ, that he should be our Lord, and we your servants for JESUS' sake."
Third, from Matt. 16:18: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
But that Peter or the pope cannot be the foundation or the rock of the church is thus proved in many ways:
First of all: Because the gates of hell overcame Peter and the popes, because they sometimes fell and sinned. For this "overcoming" does not mean taking away honor, wealth, health and physical life, which even murderers can do, but overcoming faith and holiness in the spirit.
1) Aurifaber has put this heading over this letter.
wind. Accordingly, it must be such a reason, which neither sins nor can sin, which neither errs nor can err. But this is Jesus Christ alone.
On the other hand, the church is a spiritual and holy thing, as we say: I believe a holy Christian church. But what one believes, one can neither see nor feel. Hebr. 11, 1.: "Faith doubts not that which is not seen." How, then, can Peter or the pope ever govern or maintain the church, since they do not know who the saints are, and never see the church, but must believe it, as do we all. For Christ alone sees them, who also alone gathers, nourishes and sustains them.
Third, the pope or Peter cannot impart faith, love, and the other gifts of the Holy Spirit to the church, nor can they take them away or change them, or govern the church according to such gifts. Rather, if the church is not governed by faith, love, and the other gifts of the Holy Spirit, then it is not governed, nor is it a church, but a school of Satan. But Christ alone governs the church in such a way, therefore Christ alone is the regent, shepherd, foundation and master of the church, as he says Matth. 23, 8.: "One is your master, who is in heaven; but you are brothers", that is, all of you are equal and equal to each other; I alone am the master and the supreme.
Fourthly, Peter himself and the pope are also in need of reason, love, the spirit and other gifts. Now the question is whether they have a different reason, a different faith, a different love, a different spirit than all the others. If they have the same, then they have the same; therefore
*) This letter is found in Latin in Aurifaber, vol. II, toi. 176 and in De Wette, vol. II, p. 467. According to the latter we have translated.
There are no people in these churches who are unequal to anyone or who are superiors in the church. If they do not have the same [gifts], they are not in the church, because there is no other reason for the church than the only general reason for the whole church, Christ.
Therefore, the question is: What are the pope and the bishops, and what authority do they have in the church?
Paul answers in 1 Cor. 4, 1: "For this reason everyone considers us to be Christ's servants and stewards of God's secrets," that is, in the church we are not God, nor do we share out our secrets, but God's; but we are servants, through whose word the secret of God comes into the church. But the mystery of God he calls the secret things of God, which are the foundation: Christ, faith, the Spirit, and the other gifts and goods of the Church. These are given to us through the outwardly preached word of the Gospel. For when an apostle or bishop preaches the gospel outwardly, or speaks of these mysteries of faith, God, Christ, is there at the same time and shares out the mysteries in the hearts, in the outward words that are spoken, as we read in Acts 10:43, 44. 10, 43. 44. that during Peter's preaching the hearts of the Gentiles were cleansed in faith through Christ.
From this it follows certainly and infallibly that the Church of Christ neither can nor should hear, teach, know and accept any other doctrine than that through which the mysteries of God are dispensed. And if there are any who teach or teach anything other than these mysteries of God, they are neither apostles nor bishops, but murderers and thieves who destroy the sheep, on whom Paul curses Gal. 1:8, 9: "If any man preach the gospel otherwise than we preach it, let him be accursed." So this is proven: Since the church, or any spiritual thing, cannot come into being, be sustained, live, work, overcome, abide, and do all that is due to the church, unless it is built on its foundation, that is, unless it obtains Christ who reigns in it through faith, the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit.
If Christ is the only gift of his Spirit, it is necessary that such preaching be in the church, since it [the church] has its existence through him alone and no one else. Therefore Christ alone must be preached, and built upon this foundation, and faith and what belongs to faith must be taught, as Paul said above [2 Cor. 4:5]: "For we preach not ourselves, but Christ to be our Lord."
What then are the laws and commandments of the pope and the concilia concerning fasting, feast days, dress, prayer times, and other outward things?
Here it is easy to answer: None of these is Christ; none lays the foundation, none gives the spirit, none divides the mysteries of God. Accordingly, without these things one has Christ and everything that belongs to the church, and without Christ all these things are nothing, because they give neither faith, nor the Spirit, nor anything that belongs to the spiritual life. For this comes from Christ alone, not from your fasting, not from your habit, not from your monastery, nor from all that the pope, conciliarities, and monasteries have ever ordained.
If then the pope taught that these commandments of his were of such a nature that they made blessed where they were obediently observed, or condemned where they were despised, he would truly be the Antichrist, and, rejecting Christ, would make himself the ground of eternal salvation.
This is proved thus: Since it is said that life, spirit, blessedness, and all the goods of the church come from Christ alone, who is preached through the word of the gospel and received by faith, they cannot come through the pope's commandments, or if they come through the papal commandments, they do not come through Christ. For there is only One Christ. Therefore, either the pope must preach Christ alone, or if he preaches his own, he immediately expels Christ and takes his place, which he does in fact. For that is why he is called the governor of Christ, because he believes in the
1) Latin: koris. Luther himself calls the horas canonions "the Gleite" or "the seven Gezeite," i.e., the hours of prayer prescribed at certain times of the day.
732 DeWetteII. 470f. 113,Luther's Letter to Duke Albrecht of Prussia. W. XIX,912-915. 733
In the place of the expelled Christ, he raised himself to be the foundation of the Church.
So what is one to do with the statutes of Pabst?
Answer: They must be taken out of the church like any other thing. For example, just as you do with food, drink, and other external things, so do with the commandments of the pope and the councils. How do you do this?
You take food, drink and clothing from the church in this way: you believe that you have life and salvation only from Christ and through the mysteries of God communicated to you through the word of the apostles and their successors. So you may eat or fast, clothe yourself in one way or another, but as far as Christ is concerned you have neither less nor more, but can use these things freely as you wish, provided they are only your own and you have not stolen them from your neighbor. The same is to be held and said of all the statutes and customs of the pope, the concilia, and the orders.
These are not Christ and the mysteries of God, therefore I do not live, am not in the Church of God by keeping them, do not die and am not outside the Church by not keeping them. Therefore, they are free and means things, like all other external things that are useful for the use of the body. This is what Paul says in 1 Cor. 8, 8: "Food and drink do not promote us before God." Likewise Rom. 14, 17: "The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."
How? if the pope, conciles and monasteries wanted to keep their statutes free, and did not require them as necessary or useful for blessedness and life in the church?
But then their kingdom would not exist, because they want them to be considered necessary so that they can force the people. Therefore they are Christ's adversaries, and the pope is the true antichrist, "the abomination that stands in the holy place," Matth. 24, 15. For it is very foolish and abominable to want to rule the church with outward works and laws in the holy place.
Food, drink, clothing, time and place, since they can neither live nor be saved by them, because they are temporal and perishable things, but only through Christ, the Eternal, who makes them alive through his Spirit only by means of the preached 1) word of faith. For these outward things must be cared for by parents and worldly rulers; it belongs to them to govern the body and bodily things, on which neither salvation nor damnation, but only civil peace in the world, rests. But a bishop must take care of that by which souls are governed in the spirit, that is, he must preach that Christ is the Savior; he must lay this as the foundation, and build upon it the fruits of love. After this it is easy to answer the other articles.
The second article.
Whether the pope, with or without a concilium, has been granted by God the power or authority to give a law over a divine commandment or regulation, by the observance of which a man may be saved, or by the contempt of which he may be damned?
Answer: No. Yes, neither all angels nor any other creatures may do this, because the Lord Christ has bound salvation and damnation to faith in the Spirit alone, Marci in the last: "He who believes will be saved; he who does not believe will be damned".
When Christ sent out his disciples, he said to them, "Preach the kingdom of God. He who hears you hears me; he who despises you despises me." Likewise, "Go ye, and preach the gospel to every creature." Therefore, if the pope or the conciliar preach Christ, or faith, or the gospel, which are the mysteries of God, they must be heard; but if they preach anything else, they are free to hear them; nay, if they wish to use coercion, they must not be heard, because the saying concerning Christ, Matt. 17:5, is immovably established, "Him ye shall hear." And in the
1) Instead of ^rssäioato, probably praeciieatum should be read; at least the text seems to us to need an alteration.
Church shall sound nothing but the word of God, which teaches the mysteries of God, 1 Pet. 4:11: "If any man speak, that he speak it as the word of God."
The third article.
Whether it is up to the pope and the conciliar to change the commandments of God and to falsify them according to their will or liking?
Answer: No. Rather, St. Paul says, "Cursed be he that preacheth another gospel," and Christ Matt. 5:19: "Whosoever shall destroy one of these least commandments, and teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven;" because the pope and the conciliar have no right in spiritual things but to preach them by word to others. Otherwise, every child that is in the cradle has as great a right to Christ, to faith, to the Spirit, and to all other things pertaining to the Church, as St. Peter himself and all the apostles have. For we are all brothers in Christ, we are all equal in that we all have the same faith, the same spirit, the same life, the same blessedness and the same God, only that outwardly one teaches differently about these things than the other.
The fourth article.
Whether the pope may divorce persons living in a lawful marriage without one of them having committed adultery, and leave both of them free to proceed to another marriage?
I answer: No. Because Paul says: "We can do nothing against GOD" 2c. and again: "GOD has not given us the power,
to tear down, but to build." The pope shall fear the word of GOD, preach and fortify the same, but not dissolve or change it. Accordingly, the word of God remains: "What God has joined together, let not man put asunder." But if in such a case people have been divorced by the pope and marry another person, they break the marriage, and the error of the pope will not excuse them, because all should know the word of God.
The fifth article.
Whether the pope may break up or separate a marriage contracted between blood friends and relatives, brothers-in-law or those who are connected to each other by spiritual kinship, except for those degrees that are forbidden in the law of God, without the consent or approval of both, so that both are then free to remarry or enter into matrimony?
Answer: No. Because it has been said above that the pope and all ministers of the Word in the church should do nothing but the mysteries of God, the Word of life and the doctrine of faith, nor should they do anything at anyone's discretion or will without the Word of God. For he is subject to God and His word, even though he has long since exalted himself over everything that is called God or worship, 2 Thess. 2:4, and does everything against and over and without the word of God. Given at Wittenberg in 1524.
Your Serene Highness most devoted Martin Luther.
To this section also belong the writings, which are included in the appendix of this volume from No. 36 to No. 41; in addition, Luther's final speech, which is appended to his Augsburg Acts with Cajetan, and is found Walch, old edition, Vol. XV, 746, as can also be looked up, what he has written about the reputation and the power of the Pope against Silvester Prierias, in the St. Louis edition, Vol. XVIII, 422 ff. Likewise Wider Johann Nannes, ibid. Col. 456 ff; Wider Eck Col. 720 ff; Wider Augustin von Alveld Col. 1002 ff. and Wider Ambrosius Catharinus Col-. 1434 ff.