Collected Works of Martin Luther

by Martin Luther

  Therefore, as at that time, so at all times there are few who stand by the divine truth, and imperil and risk life and limb, goods and honor, and all that they have, as Christ has foretold: “Ye shall be hated of all men for My Name’s sake.” [Matt. 14:9 f.] And: “Many of them shall be offended in Me.” Yea, if this truth were attacked by peasants, herdsmen, stable-boys and men of no standing, who would not be willing and able to confess it and to bear witness to it? But when the pope, and the bishops, together with princes and kings attack it, all men flee, keep silent, dissemble, in order that they may not lose goods, honor, favor and life.

  Witnessing to the Truth Demands Faith

  III. Why do they do this? Because they have no faith in God, and expect nothing good from Him. For where such faith and confidence are, there is also a bold, defiant, fearless heart, that ventures and stands by the truth, though it cost life or cloak, though it be against pope or kings; as we see that the martyrs did. For such a heart is satisfied and rests easy because it has a gracious, loving God. Therefore it despises all the favor, grace, goods and honor of men, lets them come and go as they please; as is written in Psalm xv: “He contemneth them that contemn God, and honoreth them that fear the Lord” [Ps. 15:4]; that is, the tyrants, the mighty, who persecute the truth and despise God, he does not fear, he does not regard them, he despiseth them; on the other band, those who are persecuted for the truth’s sake, and fear God more than men, to these he clings, these he defends, these he honors, let it vex whom it may; as it is written of Moses, Hebrews xi, that he stood by his brethren, regardless of the mighty king of Egypt. [Heb. 11:24 ff.]

  Lo, in this Commandment again you see briefly that faith must be the master-workman in this work also, so that without it no one has courage to do this work: so, entirely are all works comprised in faith, has has now been often said. Therefore, apart from faith all works, are dead, however good the form and name they bear. For as no one does the work of this Commandment except he be firm and fearless in the confidence of divine favor: so also he does no work of any other Commandment without the same faith: thus every one may easily by this Commandment test and weigh himself whether he be a Christian and truly believe in Christ, and thus whether he is doing good works or no. Now we see how the Almighty God has not only set our Lord Jesus Christ before us that we should believe in Him with such confidence, but also holds before us in Him an example of this same confidence and of such good works, to the end that we should believe in Him, follow Him and abide in Him forever; as He says, John xiv: “I am the Way, the Truth and the life,” [John 14:6] — the Way, in which we follow Him; the Truth, that we believe in Him; the life, that we live in Him forever.

  From all this it is now manifest that all other works, which are not commanded, are perilous and easily known: such as building churches, beautifying them, making pilgrimages, and all that is written at so great length in the Canon Law and has misled and burdened the world and ruined it, made uneasy consciences, silenced and weakened faith, and has not said how a man, although he neglect all else, has enough to do with all his powers to keep the Commandments of God, and can never do all the good works which he is commanded to do; why then does he seek others, which are neither necessary not commanded, and neglect those that are necessary and commanded?

  The Ninth and Tenth Commandments

  The last two Commandments, which forbid evil desires of the body for pleasure and for temporal goods, are clear in themselves; these evil desires do no harm to our neighbor, and yet they continue unto the grave, and the strife in us against them endures unto death; therefore these two Commandments are drawn together by St. Paul into one, Romans vii, and are set as a goal unto which we do not attain, and only in our thoughts reach after until death. For no one has ever been so holy that he felt in himself no evil inclination, especially when occasion and temptation were offered. [Rom. 7:7] For original sin is born in us by nature and may be checked, but not entirely uprooted, except through the death of the body; which for this reason is profitable and a thing to be desired.54 To this may God help us. Amen.

  ENDNOTES.

  1 Col. 3:17. See above p. 25, note 1.

  2 The Tessaradecas consolatoria, printed in the present volume, pp. 109-171.

  3 Sexternlein.

  4 Questions debated in the schools.

  5 Here “the Faith” means the Creed, as a statement of faith.

  6 I.e., In faith.

  7 A quality, state or condition, independent of works.

  8 St. Jacob di Compostella, a place in Spain, where the Apostle James, the son of Zebedee, who was killed in Jerusalem (Acts 12:2), is in Spanish tradition said to have died a martyr’s death; since the Ninth Century a noted and much frequented goal of pilgrimages. The name Compostella is a corruption of Giacomo Postolo, that is “James the Apostle.”

  9 St. Bridget of Ireland, who died in 523, was considered a second Virgin Mary, the “Mary of the Irish.” Perhaps here confused with another Bridget, or Brigita, who died 1373, a Scottish saint, who wrote several prayers, printed for the first time in 1492 and translated into almost all European languages.

  10 I.e., by us men.

  11 This translation indicates the imperfection of the German form of Bible quotation throughout this treatise.

  12 Page 190.

  13 Page 190.

  14 A Jarmarkt; the reference here being to the bargaining common at such fairs.

  15 The theme developed in the treatise De Libertate, 1520.

  16 Page 190.

  17 A gold coin, the value of which is very uncertain. It was an adaptation of the florin, which was first coined in Florence in the year 1252, and was worth about $2.50. Of the value of the gold gulden of Luther’s time various estimates are given. Schaff, Church History, 3 vi., p. 470, calls it a guilder and says it was equal to about $4.00 of the present day. Preserved Smith, Life of Luther, p. 367, fixes its intrinsic value at about fifty cents, but believes its purchasing power was almost twenty times as great. To us a gold piece worth fifty cents seems almost impossible; but the New English Dictionary quotes, under the year 1611: “Florin or Franc: an ancient coin of gold in France, worth ij s. sterling.” As the gold coins of those times were not made of pure gold, rarely 17 carats fine, the possibility may be granted. But in 1617, the Dictionary quotes “The Gold Rehnish Guldens of Germany are almost of the same standard as the Crowne Gold of England,” and the Crown was worth at the time 6s. 3 1/2 d. — somewhat more than $1.50.

  The later silver gulden, worth about forty cents was current in Europe until modern times, and a gulden, worth 48 1/2 cents, was, until recently, a standard coin in Austro-Hungary.

  18 Grosse Hansen.

  19 Men who exercised a delegated authority and acted as the representatives of pope and bishop in matters of church law.

  20 See especially the Address to the Christian Nobility and the Babylonian Captivity.

  21 On the number of the sections see the Introduction, p. 178.

  22 Here, as also in his Catechism, Luther departs from the Old Testament form of the Third Commandment. His restatement of it is extremely difficult to put into English, because of the various meanings of the word Feiertag. It may mean “day of rest,” or “holiday,” or “holy day.” By the use of this word Luther avoids the difficulty of first retaining the Jewish Sabbath in the Commandment and then rejecting it in favor of the Christian Sunday in the explanation.

  23 Gottesdienst.

  24 A reference to the Requiem Mass, sung both at the burial of the dead, and on the anniversary of the day of death. The word translated “memorial,” Begängniss, is literally, “a burial service.”

  25 See also the Treatise on the New Testament, elsewhere in this volume.

  26 The sermons were frequently either scholastic arguments or popular, often comic tirades against current immorality; the materials were taken from the stories of the saints as much as from the Bible.

  27 Lived 1091-1153. Founder of the Cistercian monastery at Clairvaux, of
whom Luther says: “If there ever lived on earth a God-fearing and holy monk, it was Saint Bernard, of Clairvaux.” Erl. Ed., 36, 8.

  28 Cf. Discussion of Confession, above, p. 81 f.

  29 The prayer-book and the rosary. The Breviary, a collection of prayers, was used by the clergy; the Rosary, the beads of which represent prayers, the smaller and more numerous Ave Marias, the larger of the Lord’s Prayer, Paternoster, was the layman’s prayer book.

  30 Cf. Introduction to The Fourteen of Consolation, p. 106.

  31 See note, p. 191.

  32 The German, Oelgötzen, means the wooden images of saints, which were painted with oil paints. It was transferred to any dull person, block-head, sometimes also to priests, who were anointed with oil at their consecration.

  33 Sinnlichkeit.

  34 St. Barbara, a legendary saint, whose day falls on December 4, was thought to protect against storm and fire. See above, p. 237. St. Sebastian, a martyr of the third century, whose day falls on January 20, was supposed to ward off the plague.

  35 Cf. The Fourteen of Consolation, above, p. 162.

  36 Page 194 f.

  37 I. e., by fear without love.

  38 The patron saint of music, of whose life and martyrdom little that is definite is known.

  39 Canonisations, giving a dead man the rank of a saint, who may be or shall be worshiped.

  40 I.e., faith.

  41 Cf. the similar statements in the Sermon vom Wucher (Weimar Ed., VI, 59) and in the Address to the Christian Nobility (ibid., 438).

  42 A name for the dependents of the papal court at Rome.

  43 At Constance, 1414-1443; at Rome, the Lateran council, 1512-1517.

  44 Or, “Who is said to rule the councils.”

  45 This program of reform is further elaborated in the Address to the Christian Nobility.

  46 Augustus Caesar, first Roman Emperor (B.C. 63-A.D. 14), the Caesar Augustus of Luke 2:1.

  47 “The purchase of a rent-charge (rent, census, Zins) was one of the methods of investing money frequently resorted to during the later middle ages. From the transfer from one person to another of the right to receive a rent already due the step was but a short one to the creation of an altogether new rent-charge, for the express purpose of raising money by the sale of it…The practice seems to have arisen spontaneously, and to have been by no means a mere evasion of the prohibition of usury.” Dictionary of Political Economy, ed. by R. H. Inglish Palgrave, vol. ii. Cf. Ashley, Economic History, vol. i, p.t. ii, §§ 66, 74, 75. For a fuller discussion of the subject by Luther, see the Sermon vom Wucher (Weimar Ed., VI, 51-60).

  48 See note above, p. 220.

  49 Sorgfäitigkeit, Luther’s translation of the Vulgate solicitndo in Rom. 12:8, where our English Version reads “diligence.” The word as Luther uses it includes the two kinds of carefulness and considerateness.

  50 A most strict monastic order; the phrase here is equivalent to “becomes a monk.”

  51 Sanftmüthlgkeit.

  52 Luther discusses these tricks in detail in his Sermon von Kaufhandlung und Wucher (1524) Weimar Ed., XV, pp. 279 ff.

  53 Sermon von dem Wucher, Weimar Ed., VI, 36 ff. Cf. also Address to the German Nobility.

  54 Cf. The Fourteen of Consolation above, p. 149.

  Treatise on the New Testament (1520)

  Translated by A. T. W. Steinhaeuser

  CONTENTS

  INTRODUCTION

  ENDNOTES.

  A TREATISE ON THE NEW TESTAMENT,

  ENDNOTES.

  INTRODUCTION

  THE TREATISE ON the New Testament, that is, on the Holy Mass, was published in the year 15201 In the beginning of August of that year, Luther’s Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation had appeared, in which he had touched upon the subject of the mass,2 but refused to express himself fully at that time, promising to take up this question later, a promise which he had already made in his Treatise on Good Works, of May, 1520.3 He must have begun the preparation of this Treatise on the New Testament while the Address to the Christian Nobility was still in press, because on Aug. 3 it was already finished and ready for publication.4 The treatise, therefore, takes its place between Luther’s two famous writings, the Address to the Christian Nobility and the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, which appeared in Oct, 1520. Its tone is remarkably quiet, and its aim predominantly constructive. It is one of those devotional tracts which Luther issued from time to time between his larger publications, and which appear like roses among the thorns of his polemical writings.

  The doctrine of the Lord’s Supper was one of the most corrupt doctrines of the Roman Church, and it was, therefore, but natural that Luther should have written extensively on this subject, even at the beginning of the work of reformation. From this period, when the opposition of the Sacramentarians5 to the doctrine of the Real Presence had not yet arisen we have four writings of Luther in which he makes this sacrament a subject of special discussion. These are (1) his mild-toned Sermon von dem hochwürdigen Sacrament, etc., of 1519; (2) the present Sermon von dem neuen Testament, etc., of Aug., 1520; (3) the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, of Oct., 1520; (4) the strongly polemical tract On the Abuse of the Mass, 1522.6 We shall have occasion to refer to some interesting points of comparison among these works.

  This treatise is divided into sections, ending with number 40, but section 32 is omitted, so that there are only 39 in all. Section 1 contains the introduction, section 40 the conclusion. Sections 2-15 are the positive, constructive part of the treatise, dealing with the question. What is the Lord’s Supper? In sections 16-34 the sacrificial theory of the Roman Church is rejected; sections 35-31 discuss (1) in how far we may speak of making an offering in the sacrament, and (2) what follows for the conception of a true priesthood in the Church, viz., the priesthood of all believers. Sections 33-39 deal, among other things, with the abuses to which an unscriptural conception of the Lord’s Supper has led. Of special interest is section 12, in which Luther gives a summary of all that enters into the Sacrament of the Altar.

  Knowing, as we do, that Luther developed his doctrine of the Lord’s Supper gradually7 and under stress of much opposition from all sides, it is interesting for us to note the stage of that development which this treatise represents. We may, therefore, inquire how he stood at this time on the question of the Real Presence. This question is answered under the fourth point of section 12. The true presence of the body and blood cannot be more clearly admitted than is done in sections 11 and 12 of this treatise. We can safely say that there never was a time when Luther was uncertain on this point. The point of view from which he discusses the significance of the sacrament in the Sermon von dem hochwürdigen Sacrament (1519) has sometimes been cited to the contrary, but even in this Sermon, with its emphasis upon the spiritual body of Christ, of which even those may be partakers whom the pope might exclude from the external communion, he speaks of the bread and wine as being changed into the Lord’s “true, natural flesh” and into His “natural, true blood,” 8 which shows that Luther at that time, nine months before the appearance of this Treatise on the New Testament, still held even to the conception of transubstantiation. He cannot, therefore, have had doubts about the Real Presence.

  In view, however, of the rapid development of Luther’s doctrinal conceptions, we might further ask: Did Luther still retain his belief in transubstantiation at the time when he wrote the Treatise on the New Testament? At the beginning of October in this same year, in his Babylonian Captivity, Luther comes out for the first time with an attack on this Roman doctrine. He regards it as a mere human opinion, which one may accept or not accept, and clearly inclines to the belief that after consecration not only the form (Gestalt; species), but also the substance of bread and wine is still present.9 In the Sermon von dem hochwürdigen Sacrament he spoke of the “shape and form of the bread”; in the present treatise he chooses the expression: “His own true flesh and blood under the bread and wine” (sec. 12). This would soon to in
dicate that in this writing he already holds the opinion which he soon afterward expressed in the Babylonian Captivity. But while he believed in the real presence of Christ’s “own true flesh and blood,” this body of Christ he regards — at this time, when he has not yet had to meet the spiritualistic interpretation of the Sacramentarians — as a sign only, a thing signifying the blessing of the sacrament, which is forgiveness of sins and life eternal (sec 10). Exactly the same view is expressed in the Sermon of 151910. “Luther does not yet speak of ‘any value which this body, sacramentally imparted, is supposed to have in and of itself.’” 11

  The question next arises: How does the recipient of the sign (body and blood under bread and wine) become partaker of that which is thereby signified? It is through faith, as the receiving organ (sec. 13). So, too, in the Sermon of 1519, where it is called the “third part of the sacrament,” “in which the power lies” (wo die Macht anliegt). At a later time Luther found it necessary to emphasize the fact that it is not through the faith of the recipient that the sacrament gains its power and efficacy, since this attaches to it simply by virtue of the Word12; but that faith is the receiving organ for the blessing of the sacrament is a conviction which he never gave up.

  The object of faith is the Gospel, i. e., the promise of the forgiveness of sins contained in the Words of Institution, which are a “testament,” a “new and eternal testament” (secs. 5-10). Hence the title of the work, Treatise on the New Testament. While the Sermon of 1519 speaks of the Gospel only in general, we have here a special emphasis on the words of institution as embracing “in a short summary” the whole Gospel (sec. 33). The words of institution are still further emphasized and interpreted in the work On Abuse of the Mass, of 1522. Because of the importance of the Word in the sacrament, Luther declares that the words of institution should be spoken aloud, not whispered, as was and is done in the Roman churches, and in a language which is understood by the people (sec. 16).