Luther attacks church authority
Instead of going to Rome, Luther met a papal legate, Cardinal Cajetan, at Augsburg. At this meeting he refused to accept the church’s teachings on penance and indulgences. When Cajetan pointed out that indulgences were validated by papal decrees, Luther denied that these decrees were valid if they were contrary to Scripture. He demanded the calling of a general council to settle the issue.
In the uncertain situation surrounding the question of the imperial succession, Leo was reluctant to intervene. In 1519, however, Luther forced his hand. In that year a public debate took place at Leipzig between Luther’s colleague, Andrew Carlstadt, an extreme exponent of the Augustinian doctrine of the impotence of man, and the theologian John Eck. Luther intervened in the debate and was forced by Eck into a position where, in order to defend his attack on indulgences, he not only denied papal supremacy, but also admitted that general councils could err -the Scriptures alone were authoritative.
Luther’s denunciation of the two highest authorities in the church placed him in the same relationship to Catholicism as the heretics. Despite this, Frederick of Saxony continued to protect him. This gave Luther the opportunity to develop his beliefs and to circulate his writings within the empire. In 1520 he published three pamphlets which finalized his break with Rome.
In his Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation Luther called on the emperor and princes to undertake the reform of the church. As they exercised authority in the empire, it was their duty to do what the church seemed incapable of doing. To a large extent he was reviving the interpretation which the theocratic monarchs of the Early Middle Ages had given to Augustine’s concept of the just ruler. It was the duty of the ruler, as appointed by God, to maintain and restore order in the church. Luther was, however, taking this concept a step further by proclaiming what became a central doctrine of Protestantism: the priesthood of all believers. Luther argued that all Christians have an equal priestly calling in the church and have responsibilities towards God. The responsibilities of the princes included the material and spiritual welfare of their people.
In continuation of this, the pamphlet The Babylonian Captivity of the Church accused the papacy and the clergy of keeping the church in captivity by monopolizing privileges to which all Christians, as equal members of the church, had a right. He denounced the sacerdotal aspect of priesthood and denied the scriptural validity, not only of penance, but also of four other sacraments: confirmation, marriage, holy orders and extreme unction. He recognized the validity of only two sacraments: baptism and the Eucharist. In accepting the Eucharist, he denied the doctrine of transubstantiation and replaced it with that of consubstantiation. He believed Christ’s real presence was in the Eucharist after the consecration, not because the bread and wine were physically transformed into Christ’s body and blood, but because they coexisted with his body and blood. Luther also denounced the Catholic view of the Mass as a sacrifice offered by the priest. He saw it as an act signifying the New Testament between Christ and man; a sign of God’s forgiveness of sin.
In his third pamphlet, On Christian Liberty, Luther defined his doctrine of justification by faith alone and elaborated his teaching on the priestly office of all believers. Although salvation was only secured through faith, this did not mean that man was free to behave as he chose. A good man would do good works in order to show his love for God.
As only the Babylonian Captivity of the Church was written in Latin, the pamphlets were aimed at a wide audience. Luther recognized the advantages offered by the printing press which enabled him to reach a wider audience than the earlier heretics had been able to. Within three weeks, 4 000 copies of the Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation were sold. Between 1518 and 1525 no fewer than one-third of the books sold in Germany were written by Luther.
Luther was fortunate in that his opponents failed to realize the opportunities the press offered as a means of propaganda until after he had disseminated his ideas. By 1520 the widespread support which Luther’s pamphlets were receiving forced Leo to take action. In June he condemned forty one Lutheran errors in the bull Exsurge Domine, ordered his writings to be publicly burned, and gave him sixty days in which to recant. In reply, in December Luther publicly burned the papal bull and several volumes of canon law in Wittenberg. By doing so he not only symbolically denied papal authority, but also that of the Catholic church as a whole.
As a result, on 3rd January 1521 Leo, in the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem, formally excommunicated Luther and requested the new emperor, Charles V,14 to put the excommunication into effect.
Despite strong Catholic convictions, Charles was very aware of the need for church reform. He also saw his position as emperor in medieval terms, as heir to the theocratic western emperors and secular head of a united Christendom. He saw his empire as both the evidence of a divine intention to restore Christendom, and the means to carry out that intention. In Augustinian terms, he saw himself as the just ruler ordained to protect and reform Christendom.
Charles was therefore the exemplar of the Christian prince advocated by Luther in his Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation. His conviction of the truth of Catholicism, however, and of the need for church unity meant that there could be no hope of agreement between the two men. As far as Charles was concerned, Luther’s teaching would lead to division, rebellion, war and the collapse of Christendom. He accepted the need for Luther’s destruction.
Despite this, he was not prepared to act hastily against Luther. He was reluctant to offend Germans before he had had time to consolidate his position in the empire. By acting against Luther he could have done so. Instead, he agreed, despite papal protests, to invite Luther to attend an imperial diet at Worms under safe conduct. The diet met in April 1521. When questioned, Luther refused to recant:
Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me, Amen.15
Luther then received the ban of the empire. This made him a public outlaw and made anyone who supported him liable to imprisonment.
14 In 1519 Maximilian died and Charles was elected. He was crowned king at Aachen in 1520. His coronation as king of Lombardy and emperor by the pope at Bologna was as late as 1530. This was the last time a pope crowned a Holy Roman emperor.
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