21 Catholic Responses to Early Protestant Doctrines of Justification ◈

The notion of ‘ heresy’ is complex, in that it rests in no small part on social construction – the perception on the part of one community that a certain idea poses a threat to its fundamental coherence. 3 Protestant writers retained the conceptual notion of heresy, using it to designate both historical heresies whose demerits were not in dispute with their Catholic opponents – such as Arianism – as well as certain teachings which emerged within their own communities that were deemed problematic. 4 Although patristic writers thought of heresy primarily in terms of subversive or destructive ideas, 5 the notion of heresy changed subtly in the Middle Ages, as a result of the entanglement of theological orthodoxy with issues of ecclesiastical power and influence. The term heresy became politicised, now additionally designating individuals or movements which were deemed to pose a threat to the authority of the church. 6 The establishment of the Inquisition can be seen as marking a confirmation of the increasing political and institutional significance of heresies deemed to pose a threat to papal authority. 7

Luther’ s excommunication in January 1521 by Pope Leo X identified the German reformer as a threat to Catholic orthodoxy and orthopraxy on multiple fronts. Although there were others around Luther during the critical years 1518‒ 25 developing similar views, his high visibility ensured that Catholic criticism tended to focus almost entirely on Luther himself. Catholic perceptions of the nature of Luther’ s reforming programme and its potential implications for Catholicism thus tended to be mediated through the polemical writings of Luther’ s earliest opponents. As these were generally concerned to discredit Luther, rather than offer an objective account of his ideas followed by an assessment of their significance, they generally offer a less than satisfactory account of Luther’ s theological development. Yet this is not of particular significance for our purposes in this chapter, which considers how Luther was understood by his opponents, irrespective of the intellectual merits of their understanding of his motives or concerns, or any historical judgement as to whether they were successful in achieving their objectives. 8 It is certainly true that some critiques of Luther were theologically rigorous – most notably John Fisher ’ s Assertionis Lutheranae Confutatio (1523), which is a rare example of a polemical writing which presented Luther’ s teaching as a ‘ coherent body of theology erected upon a firm doctrinal foundation’ . 9 Many of these works, however, aimed to align Luther with discredited figures or movements from the past – a tactic especially evident in Tetzel’ s rebuttal of Luther’ s criticism of indulgences, in which he asserted that Luther repeated discredited ideas on confession and satisfaction once held by the heretics John Wycliffe and Jan Hus, and subsequently condemned by the Council of Constance. 10

Catholic reactions to Luther began to emerge after he sent three Latin works to the archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg, Albrecht of Brandenburg , a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire and the sponsor of raising indulgences to offset the costs of constructing St Peter’ s Basilica in Rome. The texts were:

Early Catholic responses to Luther might be expected to focus on the text of the papal bull Exsurge Domine . However, as Johann Eck tried to explain to Adrian VI – Leo’ s successor as Pope – in 1523, Exsurge tended to deal with rather obscure theological points on which Catholics differed among themselves, and failed to make a plausible case for rejecting Luther’ s overall position. What was really needed, in Eck’ s view, was a document that focussed on major theological issues, making clear why Luther’ s views had to be contested. 12 Interestingly, Eck also complained that Exsurge failed to engage Scripture, particularly the Pauline letters, which many saw as particularly important. 13

A much more perceptive account of the significance of Luther’ s theology was due to the English Catholic theologian John Fisher , bishop of Rochester. In May 1521, Fisher defended the bull Exsurge Domine not by expounding its individual articles, but rather by focussing on the three broad themes which he believed to lie at the core of Luther’ s theology: the denial of papal primacy, justification by faith alone , and the restriction of doctrinal authority to scripture alone. 14 While the first of these three themes is explicitly mentioned in Exsurge , the remaining two are not. Fisher rightly – and, as events proved, rarely – discerned that these two core theological themes lay at the heart of Luther’ s reforming programme, and that all else was erected on this foundation.

In what follows, we shall consider the main lines of criticism directed against Luther in the period 1518– 25 and attempt to correlate these with Luther’ s emerging view that the doctrine of justification by faith alone was the fundamental article of the Christian faith, which had to be given priority in formulating any programme of reformation. As will become clear, a set of ideas which Luther regarded as fundamentally interconnected were treated as disparate and detached.

This brief survey of early Catholic responses to Luther suggests that his theology of justification was generally not understood, nor were its wider implications appreciated, in the opening phase of the Reformation. This observation is more important than might at first sight appear, as it suggests that Catholicism’ s delayed capacity to grasp Luther’ s theology of justification blunted its capacity to understand the appeal of this way of thinking to early modern groups who were looking – and hoping – for a more accessible and personally engaged account of the Christian faith. The appeal of what might loosely be described as ‘ evangelical’ approaches to justification and the Christian life which gained traction in urban communities in Italy point to both the deep social changes taking place around this time, and the perceived need to engage them. 24 The rise of ‘ evangelical’ groups suggests that certain groups of people experienced an existential deficit in contemporary Catholicism, and found ways of relieving this situation without entailing a rejection of the Catholic church. As attitudes hardened during the 1530s, however, this became more difficult to manage.