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In the summer and fall of 1520, Luther published his three chief writings, which today are considered the three great Reformation treatises. The first was entitled To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation Respecting the Reformation of the Christian Estate, and appeared in August 1520. It was followed in late September by The Babylonian Captivity of the Church and in early October by A Treatise on Christian Liberty.
On Christian Liberty is a short treatise, free from theological jargon, concerning the priesthood of all believers as a result of justification by faith. It begins with an antithesis: A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to everyone, a paraphrase of Paul's word in I Corinthians 9:19. Luther expounds this by proving that no outward works can produce Christian righteousness or liberty; faith alone is the effectual way to use the Word of God for salvation.
It does not profit the soul to wear sacred vestments or to dwell in sacred places, nor does it harm the soul to be clothed in [common] raiment, and to eat and drink in the ordinary fashion. The soul can do without everything except the Word of God
. [22]
This gives the liberty of the Christian man; no dangers can really harm him, no sorrows utterly overwhelm him, for he is always accompanied by the Christ to whom he is united by faith. [23]
In The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, Luther declares that the one test and the one authority for everything is the Word of God itself, whereas the papacy has held the church of God captive under the traditions and commandments of men. He points out that according to Scripture
Luther is particularly indignant over the Roman degradation of the whole concept of marriage. |
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the church should have only two observances: baptism and the Lord's supper. The other so-called sacraments are merely ceremonies instituted by man. Luther is particularly indignant over the Roman degradation of the whole concept of marriage. Nothing in Scripture or in the practice of the early church forbids the marriage of any believers, yet the Roman church interfered with marriages for a variety of reasons. Furthermore, divorce is abominable to the Lord, as He Himself says, What therefore God has yoked together, let not man separate (Matt. 19:6b). Nevertheless, the papal hierarchy firstly (in its own canon law) prohibits divorce; then it breaks all laws, human and divine, by permitting divorce for a sum of money.
The book To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation produced the most instantaneous, widespread, and powerful effect of anything Luther wrote. In it he applies the principles given in the shorter treatise,
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In other words, no occupation is to be considered more holy than any other. |
Concerning Christian Liberty, to the reformation of the political society. He declares the true God-ordained and holy characteristic of every human relationship of the family, home, trade, or profession for people from all levels of society. In other words, no occupation is to be considered more holy than any other. Furthermore, he appeals to the mass of the German people by exposing the greatest source of the evils that oppress them: the Roman Catholic system and the pope himself.
The Romanists, with great adroitness, have built three walls about them, behind which they have hitherto defended themselves in such wise that no one has been able to reform them; and this has been the cause of terrible corruption throughout all Christendom.
First, when pressed by the temporal power, they have made decrees and said that the temporal power has no jurisdiction over them, but, on the other hand, that the spiritual is above the temporal power. Second, when the attempt is made to reprove them out of the Scriptures, they raise the objection that the interpretation of the Scriptures belongs to no one except the pope. Third, if threatened with a council, they answer with the fable that no one can call a council but the pope. [24]
Then Luther indicts the pope himself:
It is a horrible and frightful thing that the ruler of Christendom, who boasts himself vicar of Christ and successor of St. Peter, lives in such worldly splendor that in this regard no king nor emperor can equal or approach him, and that he who claims the title of most holy and most spiritual is more worldly than the world itself. He wears a triple crown, when the greatest kings wear but a single crown; if that is like the poverty of Christ and of St. Peter, then it is a new kind of likeness. [25]
If ninety-nine parts of the papal court were done away and only the hundredth part allowed to remain, it would still be large enough to give decisions in matters of faith. Now, however, there is such a swarm of vermin yonder in Rome, all boasting that they are papal, that there was nothing like it in Babylon. There are more than three thousand papal secretaries alone; who will count the other offices, when they are so many that they scarcely can be counted? And they all lie in wait for the prebends and benefices of Germany as wolves lie in wait for the sheep. I believe that Germany now gives much more to the pope at Rome than it gave in former times to the emperors. Indeed, some estimate that every year more than three hundred thousand gulden find their way from Germany to Rome, quite uselessly and fruitlessly; we get nothing for it but scorn and contempt. And yet we wonder that princes, nobles, cities, endowments, land and people are impoverished! We should rather wonder that we still have anything to eat! [26]
When they pretend that they are about to fight against the Turks, they send out emissaries to gather money. Ofttimes they issue
| They lie and deceive, make laws and make agreements with us, and they do not intend to keep any of them. All this must be counted the work of Christ and St. Peter! |
an indulgence on this same pretext of fighting the Turks, for they think the mad Germans are forever to remain utter and arrant fools, give them money without end, and satisfy their unspeakable greed; though we clearly see that not a heller of the annates or of the indulgence-money or of all the rest, is used against the Turks, but all of it goes into the bottomless bag. They lie and deceive, make laws and make agreements with us, and they do not intend to keep any of them. All this must be counted the work of Christ and St. Peter! [27]
...There is buying, selling, bartering, trading, trafficking, lying, deceiving, robbing, stealing, luxury, harlotry, knavery, and every sort of contempt of God, and even the rule of Antichrist could not be more scandalous. Venice, Antwerp, Cairo are nothing compared to this fair which is held at Rome and the business which is done there, except that in those other places they still observe right and reason. [28]
This address to the nobility concludes with twenty-seven suggestions for reform. If carried into effect, these would produce a German National Church
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It was a good book for the laity, Luther said; indeed it caught the attention of people of every class |
and would completely abolish the supremacy of the pope over the state. Luther also sought to restrict the mendicant, or begging, orders. He said that all who wished to leave the convents should be allowed to do so, for only voluntary service is pleasing to God. He would give up the saints' days and festivals, which had become merely occasions for gluttony and debauchery, and would observe only the Lord's day.
In this same book there were woodcuts by Cranach contrasting Christ with the pope. These cartoons depicted such scenes as Christ washing the disciples' feet and the pope holding out his toe to be kissed, Christ driving the money-changers out of the temple, and the pope turning a chapel into an indulgence mart, etc. It was a good book for the laity, Luther said; [29] indeed it caught the attention of people of every class.
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