An Answer to the Celebrated Romanist at Leipzig 1520
Introduction
Luther’s declaration of emancipation from the spiritual pre-eminence of the Church of Rome, which, said he, “is proven solely by the by the empty papal decretals of the last four hundred years, and against which there stands the testimony of the authentic history of eleven hundred years, the text of Holy Scripture, and the decree of the Nicene Council,” appeared in print in spring 1519.[1] It was in the form of a counter-thesis[2] to Eck’s specious and celebrated “Thirteenth Thesis.” It culminated in the Leipzig Disputation in July. Before another summer had passed, this Disputation bore marvelous and unlooked-for fruits. In a series of epochal pamphlets, written in part for the clergy, and in part for the newly awakened laity, Luther with remarkable rapidity developed his new and scriptural teaching on the nature of the Church, on the duties of the state, on the essence of the sacraments, and on the inner life of the individual Christian.
The tractates of 1520, to which that on “The Papacy at Rome” belongs, like most of Luther’s writings, were drawn forth from him in large part defensively, under provocation from the other side, or by the exigencies of the occasion. His correspondence[3] during the first half of 1520 reveals them as a result (with fresh causes arising) of the stir at Leipzig.
Said Luther (February, 1520), “You cannot make a pen out of a sword: the Word of God is a sword. I was unwilling to be forced to come forward in public; and the more unwilling I am, the more I am drawn into the contest.” Widely and eagerly read, these piquant publications made Luther the awakener, the developer, and as Harnack declares, the spiritual center of the reformatory thought that was now rising to a crisis.
Fortunate it was, that the infancy of modern and the birth of Luther were contemporary, and that Luther turned to the printing press to such an extent in that critical period, that in the single year under discussion the number of printed German works was doubled.
Our little book of June 26, 1520, is the earliest of his writings to present a full outline of his teaching on the nature of the Christian Church. Driven by an antagonist, to whom his work is a reply, to write[4] in German for the laity, Luther gives them a clear and fundamental insight into this burning subject. His teachings “which he had just one year before maintained at the Leipzig Disputation are here unfolded, following to their logical conclusions and clearly presented.”[5] This flying counter-attack against the “famous Romanist at Leipzig” thus becomes, in the judgment of Köstlin,[6] “one of the most important of his general doctrinal treatise of that period.”
Luther’s reply was written in short order during the last two weeks in May.[7] It came about in this wise: Eck at the Disputation had driven Luther to declare that belief in the divine supremacy of Rome was not necessary to salvation.
Following this, in fall, a Franciscan friar, Augustine von Avleld, had risen to attack Luther and glorify the papacy, having received an appointment from Adolph, the Bishop of Merseburg (who had posted the inhibition on the Leipzig churches against the Disputation,[8] to write against the Reformer. Alveld’s work, justifying the divine right of the Apostolic Chair, to all learned men, appeared early in May,[9] in the Latin language, in a first edition full of errors, followed quickly by a second edition.[10] Alveld attempted to cut Luther to pieces with “seven swords,” of which the first was recta ratio; the second, canonica scriptura; the third, vera scientia (gained through the Church teachers and scholastics); the fourth, pietas sacra; the fifth, sanus intellectus; the sixth, simplex et pudica sapientia; the seventh, pura et integra scientia.
On Alved’s miserable jumble, in which the Reformer is alluded to as a “heretic,” “lunatic,” “wolf,” Luther was not willing to waste any time (despite a threatening letter from Alveld); but jotted down some points for John Lonicer,[11] who on June 1st, published a sharp exposé[12] of the Leipzig Romanist’s weaknesses[13]. Although the monastic authorities at Leipzig, fearing Luther, now attempted to suppress Alveld, that worthy at once came out[14] with a new work[15] on the same theme and this time in the German language[16]. It stirred Luther’s blood. “If the jackanapes had not issued his little book in German to poison the defenceless laity,” he said, “I would have looked on it as too small a matter to take up.” As it was, with great rapidity he wrote his “The Papacy at Rome against the Celebrated Romanist at Leipzig.” Going to press in May, the book was completed on the 26th of June. The twelve known editions are all quartos and range in size from twenty-two to thirty-two leaves. The first[17] two editions were printed by Melchior Lotther in Wittenberg; one by Peypus in Nuremberg; two by Silvan Otmar in Augsburg; one by George Nadler in Augsburg; one by Adam Petri in Basel and one by Andrew Exatander.[18] Incidentally Luther handles the “Alveld Ass” [19] and the Roman cause without gloves, but in substance he explains to the layman what Christianity really is,[20] i. e., unfolds to them the essence of the Christian Church.[21] In doing so he takes advanced ground for civil and religious liberty. The traditional mediæval idea of universal monarchy is dealt a heavy blow. Neither in Civil Government nor in the Church is the need of a single monarchical head. “The Roman Empire governed itself for a long time, and very well, without the one head, and many other countries in the world did the same. How does the Swiss Confederacy govern itself at present?”