TABLE TALK

Martin Luther, c. 1522

The Protestant Reformation had many voices, but its first prophet was Martin Luther (1483–
1546), whose Ninety-Five Theses of 1517 sparked the anti-Catholic rebellion. Born into the
family of a German miner and educated at the University of Erfurt, Luther was preparing for
a career as a lawyer when suddenly, in 1505, he changed course and became an
Augustinian friar. Luther’s decision followed a terrifying experience in a thunderstorm but at
a deeper level resulted from his dissatisfaction over his relationship with God and doubts
about his salvation. He hoped that life as a friar would shield him from the world’s
temptations and allow him to win God’s favor by devoting himself to prayer, study, and the
sacraments. His spiritual doubts remained, however. Intensely conscious of his inadequacies
and failings, he was convinced he could never earn his salvation or live up to the high
standards of selflessness, charity, and purity of Jesus’ teachings as interpreted by the
Catholic Church. He despaired of ever satisfying an angry, judging God and was terrorized
by the prospect of eternal damnation.

During the 1510s, however, while teaching theology at the University of Wittenberg, Luther
found spiritual peace through his reflections on the Scriptures. He concluded that weak,
sinful human beings were incapable of earning their salvation by leading blameless lives and
performing the pious acts enjoined by the Catholic Church. Rather, he came to view
salvation as an unmerited divine gift, resulting from God-implanted faith in Jesus, especially
in the redemptive power of his death and resurrection. This doctrine of “justification by faith
alone” inspired the Ninety-Five Theses, in which Luther attacked Catholic teaching,
especially the doctrine of indulgences, which taught that people could atone for their sins
and ensure their own and their loved ones’ salvation by contributing money to the Church.
Within five years after posting the theses, Luther was the leader of a religious movement—
Protestantism—that broke with the Catholic Church not only over the theology of salvation
but also over a host of other issues concerning Christianity and the Christian life.

As Protestantism spread, Luther remained in Wittenberg as a pastor and professor and

Faith versus Good Works

He that goes from the gospel to the law 1 thinking to be saved by good works, 2
falls as uneasily as he who falls from the true service of God to idolatry; for
without Christ, all is idolatry and fictitious imaginings of God, whether of the

1 By law Luther meant religious rules and regulations; he believed that futile human efforts to live
strictly according to such laws undermined true faith.
2 Ceremonies and pious activities such as pilgrimages, relic veneration, and attendance at Mass

promoted by the Church as vehicles of God’s grace.

1
Turkish Quran, of the pope’s decrees, or Moses’ laws; if a man think thereby to
be justified and saved before God, he is undone.
***

A Capuchin says: wear a grey coat and a hood, a rope round your body, and
sandals on your feet. A Cordelier 3 says: put on a black hood; an ordinary papist
says: do this or that work, hear Mass, pray, fast, give alms, etc. But a true
Chris-tian says: I am justified and saved only by faith in Christ, without any
works or merits of my own; compare these together, and judge which is the
true righteousness.

The Bible

Great is the strength of the divine Word…But we have neglected and scorned
the pure and clear Word, and have drunk not of the fresh and cool spring; we
are gone from the clear fountain to the foul puddle, and drunk its filthy water;
that is, we have diligently read old writers and teachers, who went about with
speculative reasonings, like the monks and friars.

***

The ungodly papists prefer the authority of the church far above God’s Word; a
blasphemy abominable and not to be endured; void of all shame and piety, they
spit in God’s face. Truly, God’s patience is exceeding great, in that they are not
destroyed; but so it always has been.
The Papacy and the Monastic Orders

How does it happen that the popes pretend that they form the Church, when, all
the while, they are bitter enemies of the Church, and have no knowledge,
certainly no comprehension, of the holy gospel? Pope, cardinals, bishops, not a
soul of them has read the Bible; it is a book unknown to them. They are a pack
of guzzling, gluttonous wretches, rich, wallowing in wealth and laziness, resting
secure in their power, and never, for a moment, thinking of accomplishing God’s
will.
***

Kings and princes coin money only out of metals, but the pope coins money out
of everything— indulgences, ceremonies, dispensations, pardons; all fish come
to his net…
***

3Capuchins and Cordeliers were branches of the Franciscan religious order noted for their austerity
and strict poverty.

2
In Popedom they make priests, not to preach and teach God’s Word, but only to
celebrate Mass, and to roam about with the sacrament. For, when a bishop
ordains a man, he says: Take the power to celebrate Mass, and to offer it for
the living and the dead. But we ordain priests according to the com-mand of
Christ and St. Paul, namely, to preach the pure gospel and God’s Word. The
papists in their ordinations make no mention of preaching and teaching God’s
Word, therefore their consecrating and ordaining is false and wrong, for all
worshiping which is not ordained of God, or erected by God’s Word and
command, is worthless, yea, mere idolatry.

The Reform of the Church

The pope and his crew can in no way endure the idea of reformation; the mere
word creates more alarm at Rome than thunderbolts from heaven or the Day of
Judgment. A cardinal said the other day: Let them eat, and drink, and do what
they will; but as to reforming us, we think that is a vain idea; we will not endure
it. Neither will we Protestants be satisfied, though they administer the
sacrament in both kinds, and permit priests to marry; 4 we will also have the
doctrine of the faith pure and unfalsified, and the righteousness that justifies
and saves before God, and which expels and drives away all idolatry and false-
worshiping; with these gone and banished, the foundation on which Popedom is
built also falls.

***

The chief cause that I fell out with the pope was this: the pope boasted that he
was the head of the church, and condemned all that would not be under his
power and authority…Further, he took upon him power, rule, and authority over
the Christian church, and over the Holy Scriptures, the Word of God; no man
must presume to ex-pound the Scriptures, but only he, and according to his
ridiculous conceits; this was not to be endured. They who, against God’s word,
boast of the church’s authority, are mere idiots.

Source: From The Reformation Writings of Martin Luther, Vol. 1, The Basis of the
Protestant Reformation, translated and edited by Bertram Lee Woolf (London: Lutterworth
Press, 1953). Reprinted with permission of Lutterworth Press. In Andrea, Alfred and James
Overfield, ed., The Human Record: Sources of Global History, Volume II: since 1500
(Boston: Cengage, 2016), pp. 18-20.

4Two of the changes that Protestants demanded were al-lowing all Christians to receive the
sacrament of the Eucharist in the forms of bread and wine (in medieval Catholic practice, only the
priest drank the Eucharistic wine) and allowing priests to marry.