should also love our brethren. Look, this is the way God treats you! What are you going to do? You too must have a heart that is sweet toward him. Do this, then, forthwith! This I say in order that …10
SERMONS AT LEIPZIG AND ERFURT Peter and St. Paul, Matt. 16:13–19, June 29, 1519 Luther arrived in Leipzig for the disputation with Dr. Johann Eck on June 24, 1519. Karlstadt began the disputation with Eck on June 27, but the debate was adjourned to allow for the observance of the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul on Wednesday, June 29. Duke Barnim of Pomerania had arranged for Luther to preach in the castle chapel but because of the crowd the service had to be transferred to the disputation hall. The text Luther chose is the Gospel for the day and, as he said, "contains all the materials of the disputation." The sermon treats first the grace of God and free will and second, the power of Peter. The text and the sermon are therefore closely related to the main point of controversy in the disputation,
Luther's proposition concerning the power of the pope, Thesis 13. On the Leipzig Debate and this sermon, see LW 31, 309–325; Fife, op. cit., pp. 327–394; Letter of Luther to Spalatin, July 20, 1519 is preserved in Preserved Smith, The Life and Letters of Martin Luther (Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1911), p. 67.
The sermon with its preface was given to the printer in Leipzig by Luther himself after the disputation.
It was toned down for publication and "in published form gives no adequate idea of the power with which the ardent monk must have set forth his position" (Fife, op. cit., p. 359).
Text in German; WA 2, 244–249, compared with CL 7, 356–362.
[Luther's Preface to the Sermon] It is doubtless known to almost every one that I, Dr. Martin Luther, have been attacking the abuse of the Roman indulgence, having been moved to do this by Christian faithfulness and good intentions; since I have seen how the poor common people were being misled by the excessive enterprise of some preachers, and in their simplicity were not only slipping into dangerous error under the cloak of the indulgence but also being derprived of their scanty livelihood. From this my good intention and public service I have incurred much discomfort and danger and been put to trouble and expense, and besides, I have had to suffer grievous insult and defamation of my Christian honor by some sages and saints in the pulpit, on street corners, alleys, and everywhere else; and this has been going on now for almost two years without ceasing.
And yet, in all this what has grieved me most is that such preaching and slanders have moved and prompted so many Christian people to hatred, jealousy, backbiting, frivolous judgment, and similar grievous sins, when, if it were not for this damnable greed, indulgences in themselves are not and cannot ever become worth the price of having one heart poisoned or a commandment of God broken on their account, especially since neither God nor man has commanded indulgences and salvation gets along very well without indulgences. But now, through God's grace and help, the truth and reason for indulgences has become apparent, so that it is no longer necessary to defend my opposition. For the light itself reproves their dark work, so that one can see and understand why they have made such a hullabaloo and uproar against me, to the detriment of the truth and my condemnation. And though I might justly attack this past master [i.e., Dr. Johann Eck] of their vice, I have refrained from doing so, seeing that God, who has forgiven me many thousands of times more and, as I hope and believe, will continue to do, and from whom the real indulgence comes, has commanded us so to do [cf. Matt. 18:32–35]. I have also been content that I have experienced the fact that the envier may assail the truth, but he will never gain the upper hand.
So now that the storm is almost over, a new game is being started,2 and since the recent disputation held at Leipzig they have undertaken to cover up and palliate all their previous wickedness and faults, introducing new tricks and accusing me of wanting to champion the Bohemian heresy.3 And in order to - 26 put the seal on this properly, as such lies should be sealed, they add many other wanton, childish points: this one says that I do not accept any pope; another says that I tore up a rosary; one says that I wore a golden ring, another that I carried a garland; and like things, which are not worth telling before honest people. Therefore, the miserable, paltry envier, because he has no argument on his side, will find it far harder to invent lies than to insult me, as has happened before in this indulgence business.
Any honorable man can easily understand that it is to be expected that as they have unjustly told lies about me before so they will not tell the truth now; especially since they betray by such childish fables how eagerly they would do so if they could. And if in the past I have acted Christianly and been found innocent, contrary to all their slanders, it is to be hoped that I shall not act otherwise than as a Christian now, even though I must yield for a time to the malice of the envier and cheerfully resign myself to bear the defamation of my Christian name.
It seems fitting, however, that I should do what I can to warn and admonish every devout Christian person to guard his soul against these slanderous tongues and not to sin against God by indulging in wicked judgment or backbiting. Therefore I hope that I have demonstrated my innocence to everyone in this writing; for, upon my conscience, I know that everything which I have maintained at Leipzig is
Christian and therefore I trust that I am willing, with God's help and grace, to die for it. And in due time I shall also demonstrate it and maintain it well, indeed, far better than I can maintain the traffic in indulgences.
Nor is there any good man who can say to me that I have been convicted of a single heretical point, whether it be Bohemian or Italian [Welsch], and will gladly see or hear the person, be he learned or unlearned, who would venture to bring it out into the open. Therefore I have defended myself; if anybody wants to say otherwise concerning me, he will do me no harm, but he will surely find his judge.
In order that I may not serve myself alone, but also be of some profit to him who reads this, I am presenting the sermon, delivered at the castle in Leipzig, which almost blew up a conflagration, and yet in such a way that I may moderate what I think may be too close to ill temper, and appeal more to basic understanding.
A SERMON ON THE FESTIVAL OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL BY DOCTOR The Gospel, Matthew 16 [:13–19],4 reads as follows:
"Jesus came into the region of the city of Caesarea, which Philip had built, and there he asked his disciples, 'What are the people saying about the Son of man?' And they said, 'Some say you are John the Baptist, some say you are Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.' Then Jesus said to them,
'What then do you say of me?' And Simon Peter answered and said, 'You are Christ, the Son of the living God.' And Jesus answered him and said, 'Blessed are you, O Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven. And I tell you also: You are Peter (that is, a rock), and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.' "
[The First Part: The Grace of God and Our Free Will] The Gospel includes all the materials of the whole disputation, for it speaks primarily of two matters:
First, the grace of God and our free will; second, the power of St. Peter and the keys. The first part strikes at the great, the wise, and the holy, and would destroy them altogether, because they think they can accomplish everything through their own skill and works. But here the Lord teaches that everything that flesh and blood is or is capable of doing is futile. For no one can know, much less follow, Christ by flesh and blood; the Father in heaven must rather reveal him, as happened here to St. Peter. This is also indicated when he asks what the people are saying about him and no sure and settled answer was given, but only various unsettled opinions and fancies of the people were recounted. This shows that without the grace of God one wavers to and fro and has only an inconstant notion of God, until the Father reveals it; then a person knows what Christ is.
It follows from this that the free will of man, praise and extol it as you will, can do absolutely nothing of itself and is not free in its own volition to know or to do good, but only in the grace of God, which makes it free and without which it lies bound in sin and error and cannot get loose by itself. As Christ also
- 27 says in John 8 [:32, 36, 34]: If the truth makes you free, you will be free indeed; but he who commits sin is a slave to sin. And Paul too says the same thing in Rom. 3 [:10, 11, 12, 23]: There is no man on earth who is good and who understands God and does good; rather they all need God's grace. Even though we of ourselves may want to begin something that is good, why then does Christ bid us to pray for grace and in the Lord's Prayer teach us to say: "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven"? In order that it may be proved that we are not capable of doing God's will by our free will.
It follows, further, that one never speaks of the free will or understands it aright unless it be adorned with God's grace, without which it should rather be called one's own will than free will; for without grace it does not do God's will, but its own will, which is never good. It is true that it was free in Adam, but now through his fall it is corrupted and bound in sin. However, it has retained the name of free will because it was once free and, through grace, is to become free again.
If, then, you want to know how one becomes good and how one does good, which is the universal question, I have said that the first and foremost thing is for a man to know that of himself he cannot become or do good, and therefore he must despair of himself, let hands and feet go, declare himself an unprofitable man in the sight of God, and then call upon his divine grace, in which he should steadfastly trust. And anybody who teaches or seeks any way to begin other than this way errs and deceives himself and others [cf. Gal. 1:8]. As they do who say: Why sure, you have a free will; do as much as in you lies,
God will do his part. They say one should not bid the people to despair. Yes, of course, one should not bid them to despair; but the despair must really be pictured in its fulness. Nobody should despair of God's grace, but rather steadfastly rely upon God's help despite all the world and all sin. But one should despair completely of oneself and by no means rely upon one's free will, even to perform the smallest of works.
Therefore St. Jerome well says concerning this Gospel that it should be noted how Christ asks his disciples what men are saying of him and then afterwards asks them what they say of him, just as if they were not men. For it is true that man helped by grace is more than a man; indeed, the grace of God gives him the form of God and deifies him, so that even the Scriptures call him "God" and God's son. Thus a man must be extended beyond flesh and blood and become more than man, if he is to become good. And this begins when a man acknowledges that of himself this is impossible, humbly seeks the grace of God, and utterly despairs of himself; only then do good works follow. Thus, when grace has been obtained, then you have a free will; then do what in you lies.
It is not possible that God will deny his grace to a man who thus sincerely acknowledges his inability and utterly despairs of himself. This is the best and nearest preparation for grace, as the mother of God teaches and says in her Magnificat: "He has filled the hungry with good things" [Luke 1:53]. This is what should be preached; first rid the people of their own false trust and then fill them with good works. But the way it is, they5 teach us to do many good works and very little about the beginning of doing good works, which is more important than good works. For when the beginning is not good the end will seldom be good; but when the grace of God is obtained, works will follow almost of themselves.
This despair and search for grace should not last only for an hour or a period of time and then cease.
Rather, all our work and words and thoughts as long as we live should be directed solely toward despairing of oneself at all times and abiding in God's grace, longing and yearning for it, as the prophet says in Ps. 42 [:1–2], "As a hart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living, strong God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?" This yearning for God and yearning to be good is initiated by grace and it continues until death. Therefore, despair of oneself must also continue along with it and false trust in oneself must be left behind.
[The Second Part: On the Power of St. Peter] It is not necessary for the ordinary man to dispute much about the power of St. Peter or the pope. What is more important is to know how one should use it for salvation. It is true that the keys were given to St.
Peter; but not to him personally, but rather to the person of the Christian church. They were actually given to me and to you for the comfort of our consciences. St. Peter, or a priest, is a servant of the keys. The church is the woman and bride, whom he should serve with the power of the keys; just as we see in daily use that the sacrament is administered to all who desire it of the priests.
Now, in order that we may understand how to use the key savingly, I have said above that if one desires to be good and is made receptive to grace through the forgiveness of what we can do by our own ability, then it is important to know whether one has received God's grace or not. For one must know how