WorkMartin Luther

Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation

Luther turns from the theologians to the emperor and the German princes, and asks laymen with power to reform the church themselves.

by Martin Luther173 passages held

German, the original language

Original title: An den christlichen Adel deutscher Nation von des christlichen Standes Besserung
First published: 1520(aged 37)
Original language: German

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Overview

The defenders of Rome, Martin Luther wrote in the summer of 1520, had built three walls around themselves so that nobody could reform them. They held that spiritual power stands above temporal power, that only the pope may interpret Scripture, and that only the pope may call a council of the church. It is addressed to the young emperor Charles V, elected the year before and not yet crowned, and to the princes and nobles of Germany, and asks them to bring the walls down as the trumpets brought down Jericho. Against the first wall Luther argues that everyone who has come out of baptism has already been consecrated priest, bishop and pope, even if not everyone should exercise the office: a bishop's ordination only appoints one person to act for a community whose members all hold the same power. A Christian ruler may therefore act when the clergy will not. The rest is a programme of numbered proposals. Germany should stop paying Rome the annates, half the first year's income of every church office. Pilgrimages to Rome should be abolished. Universities should drop Aristotle's physics, metaphysics and ethics and keep his logic and rhetoric only as training for speaking and preaching. On 23 June Luther sent the manuscript to Nikolaus von Amsdorf, a canon at Wittenberg, and a letter to him opens the book. Johann von Staupitz, Luther's former superior in the Augustinian order, and his fellow friar Johann Lang wanted it held back. Melchior Lotter in Wittenberg printed 4,000 copies before 18 August, and less than a week later a second, enlarged edition was being prepared.

Key concepts

What is the 'spiritual estate', and who belongs to it?

The spiritual estate was the clergy's claim to be a separate class of Christians, above the 'temporal estate' of princes, craftsmen and farmers. Luther calls this a pure invention. All Christians belong to the spiritual estate through baptism, the gospel and faith. Clergy differ from everyone else only by the work they are given, as a cobbler or a smith differs by his craft.

Is a priest still a priest after being removed from office?

No. For Luther a priest is like an official in a town: while he holds the office he takes precedence, and once deposed he is a farmer or a citizen like the rest. He mocks the teaching of an 'indelible character', the idea that ordination marks a man for ever, as a human fiction designed to put the clergy beyond correction.

Why may temporal rulers act against the clergy?

Because temporal authority is baptised too: rulers share the same faith and gospel as everyone else and hold an office God gave them to punish wrongdoing. Luther argues that this office therefore reaches pope, bishops, priests, monks and nuns without exception. Shielding clergy from it lets them do harm unpunished, which no part of Christ's body may do to the rest.

What is a council, and who may call one?

A council is a gathering of the church's leaders to settle matters of faith and reform. Rome held that only the pope may summon or confirm one. Luther answers from history and Scripture: the apostles' council in Acts was called by all the apostles and elders, not by Peter, and the famous Council of Nicaea was summoned by an emperor. Any faithful member may call one when the pope will not.

Themes of the book

What this book returns to, gathered into themes and ordered by how much of the text each one occupies.

The Three Walls

Who has the right to reform a church whose leaders refuse to be reformed? Luther's answer hands that right to every baptised Christian, and its use to the rulers.

Rome's defenders, Luther writes, hide behind three walls of straw and paper: spiritual power stands above temporal power, only the pope may interpret Scripture, and only the pope may call a council. Against the first he argues that baptism already consecrates everyone priest, bishop and pope, so ordination merely appoints one member to act for all, as a cobbler or smith has his own work. The other walls fall with it. When a fire breaks out in a town, nobody waits because it began in the mayor's house.

religious authority
papal authority
church authority
scripture
biblical authority
church councils
political authority
secular authority
church and state
political legitimacy
canon law

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A Programme for Germany

Once the walls are down, what should actually change? The second half reads like a list of grievances turned into proposals, from Rome's taxes to the schooling of girls.

Luther numbers his proposals one after another. Germany should stop paying the annates, half the first year's income of church offices, which he calls theft and robbery. Pilgrimages to Rome should end, since they teach begging without need, and no more mendicant houses should be built. A pastor should not be forced to live without a wife, for forbidding marriage is like laying straw beside fire and forbidding smoke. Universities need a strong reformation, with Scripture at the centre, and every town should have a school where girls hear the gospel.

church reform
church wealth
clerical corruption
institutional corruption
education
marriage
monasticism
corruption
papacy
religious ritual

Enter a dialogue

Within this work

passages held: 173
distinct concepts: 280
by passages held, corpus-wide: #384

What this book thinks together

The wheel takes this book’s leading concepts and shows how often they come up together. The wider the band between two, the more of its passages speak of both. Among them, most often together: “conscience” and “religious authority”.

Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 8 concepts, joined by 14 pairings. 91 pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
Concept	Paired concept	Shared passages
conscience	religious authority	9
church wealth	clerical corruption	8
church reform	political authority	6
church reform	religious authority	4
church wealth	political authority	4
church reform	clerical corruption	3
church reform	papal authority	3
clerical corruption	political authority	3
church reform	church wealth	2
papal authority	religious authority	2
religious authority	scripture	2
church reform	conscience	1
church reform	scripture	1
political authority	religious authority	1

Works held

The author's work in order, this book marked in place. Your-language title first, the original beneath it where the two differ; side chips show which full texts are held.

1517 Ninety-five Theses (Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum)
Where the quarrel began: an academic exercise in Latin, followed within months by the German sermon that carried its argument to lay readers.
LA
1518 Sermon on Indulgences and Grace (Ein Sermon von Ablaß und Gnade)
The German companion to the Latin Ninety-five Theses: the same quarrel over indulgences, taken out of the lecture hall and put to lay readers a few months later.
DE
1520 A Treatise on Good Works (Von den guten Werken)
Published in the spring of 1520 just ahead of the three manifestos of that year, it lays out in plain German the teaching on faith and works that they take for granted.
DE
1520 Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (An den christlichen Adel deutscher Nation von des christlichen Standes Besserung) you are here DE
1520 The Babylonian Captivity of the Church (De captivitate Babylonica ecclesiae praeludium)
Of Luther's three treatises of 1520, the one written in Latin for the learned: the appeal to the nobility before it was in German, and The Freedom of a Christian, after it, appeared in both languages.
DE
1520 The Freedom of a Christian (Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen)
Meant as a peace offering to the pope, the third of Luther's treatises of 1520 turns from the institutions of the church to the life of a single believer.
DE
1522 A Sincere Admonition by Martin Luther to All Christians to Guard Against Insurrection and Rebellion (Eine treue Vermahnung zu allen Christen, sich zu hüten vor Aufruhr und Empörung)
Written in hiding between the Diet of Worms and Luther's return to Wittenberg, in the same winter that he began translating the New Testament into German.
DE
1522 Preface to the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans (Vorrede auf die Epistel S. Paul an die Römer)
A companion to The Freedom of a Christian: the same teaching on faith and works, given this time as a way into the book of the Bible it came from.
DE
1523 Temporal Authority: To What Extent It Should Be Obeyed (Von weltlicher Obrigkeit, wie weit man ihr Gehorsam schuldig sei)
A sequel that corrects its predecessor: three years after asking princes to reform the church, Luther marks the line beyond which their power over Christians stops.
DE
1529 The Large Catechism (Der Große Katechismus)
Sermons turned into a book: the catechism sermons Luther preached at Wittenberg in 1528, reworked into the fuller of his two catechisms.
DE
1529 The Small Catechism (Kleiner Katechismus)
Published a month after the Large Catechism, it gives the household the words to learn by heart, where the larger book explains them to the preacher.
DE
1530 An Open Letter on Translating (Ein Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen)
Eight years after the September Testament, and four before the complete German Bible, Luther explains how the translation was made and why he would not undo it.
DE

— or open another of their works