The three years from 1517 to 1520 were a time of immense activity on Luther’s part. He began with his Ninety-Five Theses on indulgences. In after years he was astonished at his own temerity. “I entered,” he said, “into this controversy without any definite plan.” His righteous soul was vexed by the iniquity he beheld. Without thinking of the consequences, he struck his blow. He did not conceive it possible that the Pope and the bishops favored this evil. He wished to get the matter ventilated. As professor of theology, he could initiate a debate, and his Theses were published by affixing them in a public place. No one, however, accepted the challenge. There was no debate. But his Theses were read, copied and printed. The whole city was in commotion. Before long, the excitement spread all over Christendom. Men quickly perceived the implications. Rome itself was being challenged. An unknown monk was virtually throwing down a challenge to the Pope — was questioning the traditions of centuries. Who could ignore it? His Theses contained the seed that was to split the rock on which Rome was built.
We select just a few of the ninety-five:
No. 21 “The commissaries of indulgences are in error when they say that by the papal indulgence a man is delivered from every punishment and is saved.”
No. 27 “They preach mere human follies who maintain that as soon as the money rattles in the strong box, the soul flies out of purgatory.”
No. 32 “Those who fancy themselves sure of salvation by indulgences will go to perdition along with those who teach them so.”
No. 36 “Every Christian who truly repents of his sins enjoys an entire remission both of the penalty and the guilt, without any need of indulgences.”
No. 37 “Every true Christian, whether dead or alive, participates in all the blessings of Christ, or of the Church, by God’s gift and without a letter of indulgence.”
No. 53 “They are enemies of the Pope and of Jesus Christ who, by reason of the preaching of indulgences, forbid the preaching of the Word of God.”
No. 62 “The true and precious treasure of the Church is the holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.”
Before long these Theses had spread all over Christendom. To many souls they were the water of life. Many rejoiced that such a champion for the truth had arisen. Princes viewed them with favor, seeing in them a counter to the cupidity of Rome. Even the Pope smiled patronizingly, little realizing at first their real import. Some who saw the hope of their gains going received them with anger and dismay.
About this time Luther wrote a letter to Archbishop Albert of Mainz. In it he says, “Papal indulgences for building St. Peter’s are being carried around under the authority of your most distinguished self.” Then, after protesting strongly against them, he says, “Christ nowhere commands the preaching of indulgences, but He insistently commands that the gospel should be preached. Then what a dreadful thing it is and how great the peril of a bishop who says nothing about the gospel but readily allows indulgences to be noised abroad among his people in preference to the gospel!”
It was a bold move, for Luther was in the bishop’s diocese. Archbishop Albert seems to have treated the matter with indifference or contempt, little realizing the vast importance of the issue now raised by this then little-known monk.
His letter to Staupitz, Vicar of the Augustinian order, written in 1518, is a very revealing document. It appears that a remark by Staupitz had led Luther to the true meaning of repentance. The usual Latin word poenitentia meant either penance or repentance. He tells Staupitz how his remarks had led him to a better understanding of the word and that he had been led to look up the meaning in the Greek, which clearly indicated that repentance meant a change of mind. This simple discovery was another landmark in his soul history. Then he refers to his Theses and all the trouble which he had thereby incurred.
The closing paragraphs of this letter give a touching insight into his inner feelings at this time. He wrote:
“I have no possessions, nor do I desire them. Repute and fame, even if I had them, are things of the kind that the Destroyer is today busily destroying. All that remains to me is but one, small mortal frame, weak and worn with constant hardships. If by God’s will they were to do away with it by violence or villainy, they would make me the poorer by perhaps an hour or two of life. Enough for me is Jesus Christ, my sweet Saviour and atoning Lord, to whose praise I shall sing as long as I live.”
Shortly after this, he penned a letter to the Pope himself. He explains the publication of his Theses, saying that as a teacher of theology he had a right to conduct public debates and that it was a universal custom. He expresses surprise that they should have caused such a universal clamor and professes his allegiance to His Holiness in the terms of abject submission expected from such as himself in those days, for up to this time he still trusted and revered the Pope, who seems to have treated the matter with indifference. In the midst of the controversy, he wrote a short exposition of the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. They were written from the viewpoint of his new apprehension of the truth and must have been a tremendous contrast to the wretched theology of the day.
In 1520 he launched an appeal to the ruling classes of Germany. His object is indicated in the opening paragraph, which reads:
“It is not due to sheer impertinence or wantonness that I, a lone and simple man, have taken it upon myself to address your worships. All classes in Christendom, particularly in Germany, are now oppressed by distress and affliction, and this has stirred not only me but every man to cry out anxiously for help. It has compelled me to beg and pray that God will endow someone with His Spirit to bring aid to this unhappy nation. Proposals have often been made at councils but have been cunningly deferred by the guile of certain men, and matters have gone from bad to worse. Their artifices and wickedness I intend with God’s help to lay bare in order that, once shown up, they may never again present such hindrances or be so harmful.”
He then deals with the papal abuses one after another and finally gives twenty-seven proposals for improving the state of Christendom. This may seem an unwarranted interference in world affairs, but one has to bear in mind that in Luther’s day Church and State were viewed as one, and the religious and social life of the people was completely interwoven and dominated by Rome. His aim seems to have been to help to unravel the tangled skein so that men might render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s. The following extracts will give some idea of the scope of this work.
“The Romanists have very cleverly surrounded themselves with three walls, which have protected them till now in such a way that no one could reform them. As a result, the whole of Christendom has suffered woeful corruption. In the first place, when under the threat of secular force, they have stood firm and declared that secular force had no jurisdiction over them, but rather the opposite was the case, and the spiritual was superior to the secular. In the second place, when the Holy Scriptures have been used to reprove them, they have responded that no one except the Pope was competent to expound Scripture. In the third place, when threatened with a council, they have pretended that no one but the Pope could summon a council. In this way, they have adroitly nullified these three means of correction and avoided punishment. Thus they still remain in secure possession of these three walls and practice all the villainy and wickedness we see today. When they have been compelled to hold a council, they have made it nugatory by compelling the princes to swear in advance that the present position shall remain undisturbed. In addition, they have given the Pope full authority over all the decisions of a council, till it is a matter of indifference whether there be many councils or none, for they only deceive us with make-believes and sham-fights, so terribly fearful are they for their skins, if a truly free council were held. Further, the Romanists have overawed kings and princes till the latter believe it would be impious not to obey them in spite of all the deceitful and cunning dodges of theirs.
“May God now help us and give us one of those trumpets with which the walls of Jericho were overthrown, that we may blow away these walls of paper and straw, set free the Christian, corrective measures to punish sin, and bring the devil’s deceits and wiles to the light of day. In this way, may we be reformed through suffering and again receive God’s blessing.”
• • •
“To call popes, bishops, priests, monks and nuns the religious class, but princes, lords, artisans and farm-workers the secular class is a specious device invented by certain time-servers. But no one ought to be frightened by it, and for good reason, for all Christians whatsoever really and truly belong to the religious class, and there is no difference among them except insofar as they do different work. That is St. Paul’s meaning, in 1 Corinthians 12, when he says, ‘We are all one body, yet each member hath his own work for serving others.’ This applies to us all, because we have one baptism, one gospel and one faith, and we are all equally Christian, for baptism, gospel and faith alone make men religious and create a Christian people. When a pope or bishop anoints, grants tonsures, ordains, consecrates, or dresses differently from laymen, he may make a hypocrite of a man or an anointed image, but never a Christian or a spiritually-minded man. The fact is that our baptism consecrates us all without exception and makes us all priests. As St. Peter says, ‘You are a royal priesthood and a realm of priests’ (1 Peter 2:99But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: (1 Peter 2:9)), and Revelation, ‘Thou hast made us priests and kings by Thy blood’ (Rev. 5:99And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; (Revelation 5:9)). If we ourselves as Christians did not receive a higher consecration than that given by pope or bishop, then no one would be made priest even by consecration at the hands of pope or bishop, nor would anyone be authorized to celebrate Eucharist or preach or pronounce absolution.”
• • •
“This arbitrary and deceptive ‘mental reservation’ on the part of the Pope creates a state of affairs in Rome that beggars description. You can find there a buying and selling, a bartering and bargaining, a lying and trickery, robbery and stealing, pomp, procuration, knavery, and all sorts of stratagems bringing God into contempt, till it would be impossible for the Antichrist to govern more wickedly. There is nothing in Venice, Antwerp or Cairo to compare with the fair which traffics in Rome. In these cities, right and reason enjoy some respect, but here things go on in a way that pleases the devil himself. This kind of morality flows like a tide into all the world. Such people rightly fear a reformation or an unfettered council. They would rather set kings and princes at odds than that these should unite and bring a council together. No one could bear to have villainies of this kind come to the light of day.
“Finally, the Pope has built a market-house for the convenience of all this refined traffic, viz., the house of the datarius in Rome. This is where all those resort who deal in this way in benefices and livings. From him they must buy these ‘glosses’ and transactions and get power to practice their arch-villainy. In former days, Rome was still gracious enough to sell or suppress justice for a moderate price. But today she has put her prices so high that she lets no one act the villain before he has paid a huge sum. If that is not more like a den of iniquity than any other den one can imagine, then I do not know what a den of iniquity is.
“But, if you bring money to this ecclesiastical market, you can buy any of the goods I have described. Here anyone can pay and then legally charge interest on loans of any sort. You can get a legal right to goods you have stolen or seized. Here vows are annulled; here monks receive liberty to leave their orders; here marriage is for sale to the clergy; here bastards can become legitimate, and any form of dishonor and shame can achieve dignity; all kinds of iniquity and evil are knighted and ennobled. Here a marriage is permitted which is within the forbidden degrees or which is otherwise objectionable. Oh what a jugglery and extortion go on here, until it would seem that all the laws of the canon were only given to produce gilded nooses from which a man must free himself if he would become a Christian. Indeed, here the devil becomes a saint and a god: What cannot be done anywhere else in heaven or earth can be done in this house. They call the process compositiones. Yes, compositions — really confusions. Oh how light a tax is the Rhine-toll compared with the exactions of this sacred house!
“Let no one imagine I am overdrawing the picture. Everything is public, and people in Rome have to acknowledge that it is terrible beyond the power to describe. I have not yet touched, nor do I intend to touch, upon the hellish dregs of the personal vices; I am dealing only with commonplace things, and yet I have not space to name them all. The bishops and priests, and especially the university doctors, whose salaries are given for the purpose, ought to have done their duty and, with one accord, written and declaimed against these things, but they have done the very opposite.”
He also criticized the state of the universities, saying little of Christianity was taught in them and that the blind pagan teacher Aristotle was treated as of more consequence than Christ.
“In his book, On the Soul, which is one of his best, the wretched fellow teaches that the soul dies with the body, and many have tried, in vain, to defend him. It is as if we did not possess the Holy Scriptures where we find a superabundance of teaching on the whole subject, of which Aristotle has not the faintest inkling. Yet this defunct pagan has attained supremacy — has impeded, and almost suppressed, the Scriptures of the living God. When I think of this lamentable state of affairs, I cannot avoid believing that the Evil One introduced the study of Aristotle.”
In October 1520, he launched the treatise already referred to, entitled The Babylonish Captivity of the Church. In this he attacked the whole Romish system. Henry VIII wrote a reply entitled A Defense of the Seven Sacraments, which gained for him from the Pope the title “Fidei Defensor.” Luther had taken the seven Sacraments of the Romanists — namely, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, Confirmation, Penance, Marriage, Ordination and Extreme Unction — and exposed them one by one, showing that according to Scripture there were but two, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
In September 1520, Luther wrote an open letter to Pope Leo X and accompanied it by a little book entitled Christian Freedom, which set out his thoughts as to the gospel, and in it he clearly showed that the believer was justified solely by faith and that works follow faith. A few extracts will give the reader an idea of Luther’s teaching on this fundamental subject. Let it be borne in mind it was but three years since he had nailed his Theses to the church door.
“It is easy to see why faith can do so much and why good works can never be equivalent to it, for works of merit are not such as to depend on the divine Word as in the case of faith, nor can they live in the soul. Only the Word and faith exercise sway in the soul. Just as iron becomes red like fire through its union with the fire, so does the soul become like the Word through its union with the Word. Thus we see that a Christian has sufficient in his faith. Works are not needed to make him become acceptable to God. And if such works are no longer a prerequisite, then assuredly all commandments and laws are like broken chains —and if his chains are broken, he is assuredly free. That is Christian freedom, gained by faith alone. It is wrong to think this means that we can either be idle or do evil; rather, it means that we have no need to perform works of merit in order to attain godliness and salvation. But we shall deal further with this matter later on.”
• • •
“Hence both expressions are true: Good and devout works never make a man good and duteous, but a good and religious man does good and religious works, nor do sinful works make a man sinful, but rather it is a sinful man who does sinful works. Thus every argument proves that the person must first be good and godly; after that come all the works that are good. Good works proceed logically from a godly and good person. It is as Christ said, ‘An evil tree bears no good fruit; a good tree bears no evil fruit.’ It is evident that the fruits do not bear the tree, nor do the trees grow on the fruits, but rather the trees bear the fruits, and the fruits grow on the trees.”
• • •
“Just as works do not make a man a believer, so also they do not make him godly. But just as faith makes one godly, so also does it produce good works. Therefore, it is not what one does that makes one religious. A man must be religious before he can do the works of religion. And it is evident that only faith, coming from pure grace through Christ and His Word, is sufficient to make a person religious and save him; neither works nor commandments are necessary to a Christian before he can be saved. He is free from all commandments. He does all that he does quite voluntarily without recompense and apart from seeking his own advantage or salvation. He already has sufficient, and he is already saved through his faith and the grace of God. What he does is done just to please God.”
These writings were rapidly multiplied by the printing press and received with tremendous interest throughout Christendom. The effect was incalculable. God used them to enlighten many souls. A flowing tide had now set in, the current of which would never be stemmed. Dire troubles and dark days were to follow, but the truth was never again to be submerged as it had been in medieval times.