Martin Luther, Address To The Nobility of the German Nation (1520) From the Internet History Sourcebooks Project and translated by C. A. Buchheim. Martin Luther, the leader of the Protestant Reformation, was born at Eisleben, Prussian Saxony, November 10, 1483. He studied jurisprudence at the University of Erfurt, where he later lectured on physics and ethics. In 1505 he entered the Augustinian monastery at Erfurt; two years later was ordained priest; and in 1508 became professor of philosophy at the University of Wittenberg. The starting-point of Luther's career as a reformer was his posting on the church door of Wittenberg the Ninety-five Theses on October 31, 1517. These formed a passionate statement of the true nature of penitence, and a protest against the sale of indulgences. In issuing the Theses, Luther expected the support of his ecclesiastical superiors; and it was only after three years of controversy, during which he refused a summons to Rome, that he proceeded to publish those works that brought about his expulsion from the Church. The year 1520 saw the publication of the three great documents which laid down the fundamental principles of the Reformation. In the "Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation," Luther attacked the corruptions of the Church and the abuses of its authority, and asserted the right of the layman to spiritual independence. In "Concerning Christian Liberty," he expounded the doctrine of justification by faith, and gave a complete presentation of his theological position. In the "Babylonish Captivity of the Church," he criticized the sacramental system, and set up the Scriptures as the supreme authority in religion. In the midst of this activity came his formal excommunication, and his renunciation of allegiance to the Pope. He was proscribed by the Emperor Charles V and taken into the protection of prison in the Wartburg by the friendly Elector of Saxony, where he translated the New Testament. The complete translation of the Bible, issued in 1534, marks the establishment of the modern literary language of Germany. The rest of Luther's life was occupied with a vast amount of literary and controversial activity. He died at Eisleben, February 18, 1546. Luther to Nicholas von Amsdorf The distress and misery that oppress all the To the Esteemed and Reverend Master NICHOLAS Christian estates, more especially in Germany, have VON AMSDORF, Licentiate Of holy Scripture and led not only myself, but every one else, to cry aloud Canon at Wittenberg, my special and kind friend; and to ask for help, and have now forced me too to Doctor Martin Luther. cry out and to ask if God would give His Spirit to any The grace and peace of God be with thee, one to reach a hand to His wretched people. esteemed and reverend dear sir and friend. We must renounce all confidence in our natural strength, and take the matter in hand with humble he time to keep silence has passed and the trust in God; we must seek God's help with earnest time to (Eccl 3:7) speak is come, as saith prayer, and have nothing before our eyes but the TEcclesiastes. I have followed out intention[1] misery and wretchedness of Christendom, and brought together some matters touching the irrespective of what punishment the wicked may reform of the Christian Estate, to be laid before the deserve. If we do not act thus, we may begin the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, in the hope game with great pomp; but when we are well in it, that may deign to help His Church through the efforts the spirits of evil will make such confusion that the of the laity, since the clergy, to whom this task more whole world will be immersed in blood, and yet properly belongs, have grown quite indifferent. I am nothing be done. sending the whole thing to your Reverence, that you The Romanists have, with great adroitness, may pass judgment on it and, if necessary, improve drawn three walls round themselves, with which they it. have hitherto protected themselves, so that no one Luther, Address to the Christian Nobility could reform them, whereby all Christendom has To his most Serene and Mighty Imperial Majesty and fallen terribly. to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation. Dr. Firstly, if pressed by the temporal power, they Martinus Luther. have affirmed and maintained that the temporal power has no jurisdiction over them, but, on the he grace and might of God be with you, Most contrary, that the spiritual power is above the Serene Majesty, most gracious, well-beloved temporal. gentlemen! Secondly, if it were proposed to admonish them T with the Scriptures, they objected that no one may interpret the Scriptures but the Pope. Thirdly, if they are threatened with a council, an office that is proper and useful to the Christian they pretend that no one may call a council but the community. For whatever issues from baptism may Pope. boast that it has been consecrated priest, bishop, and pope, although it does not beseem every one to (a) The First Wall exercise these offices. For, since we are all priests That the Temporal Power has no Jurisdiction alike, no man may put himself forward or take upon over the Spirituality himself, without our consent and election, to do that Let us, in the first place, attack the first wall. which we have all alike power to do. For, if a thing is It has been devised that the Pope, bishops, common to all, no man may take it to himself without priests, and monks are called the spiritual estate, the wish and command of the community. And if it princes, lords, artificers, and peasants are the should happen that a man were appointed to one of temporal estate. This is an artful lie and hypocritical these offices and deposed for abuses, he would be device, but let no one be made afraid by it, and that just what he was before. Therefore a priest should be for this reason: that all Christians are truly of the nothing in Christendom but a functionary; as long as spiritual estate, and there is no difference among he holds his office, he has precedence of others; if he them, save of office alone. As St. Paul says (1 Cor. is deprived of it, he is a peasant or a citizen like the xii.), we are all one body, though each member does rest. Therefore a priest is verily no longer a priest its own work, to serve the others. This is because we after deposition. But now they have invented have one baptism, one Gospel, one faith, and are all characteres indelebiles,1 and pretend that a priest Christians alike; for baptism, Gospel, and faith, these after deprivation still differs from a simple layman. alone make spiritual and Christian people. They even imagine that a priest can never be Thus we are all consecrated as priests by anything but a priest-that is, that he can never baptism, as St. Peter says: "Ye are a royal priesthood, become a layman. All this is nothing but mere talk a holy nation" (1 Peter ii. 9); and in the book of and ordinance of human invention. Revelations: "and hast made us unto our God (by Thy blood) kings and priests" (Rev. v. 10). For, if we had [Footnote 1: In accordance with a doctrine of the not a higher consecration in us than pope or bishop Roman Catholic Church, the act of ordination can give, no priest could ever be made by the impresses upon the priest an indelible character; so consecration of pope or bishop, nor could he say the that he immutably retains the sacred dignity of mass, or preach, or absolve. Therefore the bishop's priesthood.] consecration is just as if in the name of the whole congregation he took one person out of the It follows, then, that between laymen and priests, community, each member of which has equal power, princes and bishops, or, as they call it, between and commanded him to exercise this power for the spiritual and temporal persons, the only real rest; in the same way as if ten brothers, co-heirs as difference is one of office and function, and not of king's sons, were to choose one from among them to estate; for they are all of the same spiritual estate, rule over their inheritance, they would all of them true priests, bishops, and popes, though their still remain kings and have equal power, although functions are not the same-just as among priests and one is ordered to govern. monks every man has not the same functions. And And to put the matter even more plainly, if a this, as I said above, St. Paul says (Rom. xii.; 1 Cor. little company of pious Christian laymen were taken xii.), and St. Peter (1 Peter ii.): "We, being many, are prisoners and carried away to a desert, and had not one body in Christ, and severally members one of among them a priest consecrated by a bishop, and another." Christ's body is not double or twofold, one were there to agree to elect one of them, born in temporal, the other spiritual. He is one Head, and He wedlock or not, and were to order him to baptise, to has one body. celebrate the mass, to absolve, and to preach, this In the same way the temporal authorities hold the man would as truly be a priest, as if all the bishops sword and the rod in their hands to punish the wicked and all the Popes had consecrated him.