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Did Luther’s Excommunication Misrepresent Him?

Did Luther’s Excommunication Misrepresent Him?

Last updated on: July 1, 2024 at 2:52 pm by Dave Armstrong

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Did Luther’s Excommunication Misrepresent Him? 2024-07-01T14:52:58-04:00 Dave Armstrong

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Photo Credit: Title page of Pope Leo X’s 1520 Bull, Exsurge Domine (15 June 1520), that threatened to excommunicate Martin Luther [public domain / Wikimedia Commons]

This is what the anti-Catholic Calvinist James Swan claims in his article, “How Accurate was Exsurge Domine in Refuting Martin Luther?” (Boors All, 4-24-10). Martin Luther’s words will be in blue, Hans Hillerbrand’s in green, and Pope Leo X’s in purple. Swan wrote:

I’m going to explain why you’re not alone if you’re not sure what was going on in the Ninety Five Theses or what exactly Luther was saying at the time that so infuriated Rome. It appears Rome wasn’t sure either what exactly Luther was saying in some instances. The Roman Church issued a document explaining why they rejected Luther’s teaching: Exsurge Domine, . . .

Despite being a papal document, I would argue Exsurge Domine isn’t really any sort of help. . . . I would also point out that Rome’s sharpest minds didn’t quite know what was going on either when they put Exsurge Domine together.

Swan then refers to

Hans Hillerbrand, “Martin Luther and the Bull Exsurge Domine” (Theological Studies 30:108-112). . . . a fascinating short article, documenting how imprecisely Rome’s theologians quoted and understood Luther’s writings . . . Hillerbrand lists a number of mistakes made in Exsurge Domine when it attempted to document Luther’s errors.

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His link to this is no longer valid (it didn’t even work on the Wayback Machine; drats!), but Swan cited a good chunk of it, with which I will interact:

Proposition 25, which pertains to the primacy of the Roman pontiff, cannot be located in any of Luther’s writings prior to 1520.

25. The Roman Pontiff, the successor of Peter, is not the vicar of Christ over all the churches of the entire world, instituted by Christ Himself in blessed Peter.

Exsurge Domine didn’t claim to be making direct quotations from Luther’s writings. Rather, it stated, “Some of these errors we have decided to include in the present document; their substance is as follows:”. Is Proposition 25 present in Luther’s writings before 1520? Well, whether it was written down by this time or not, Luther’s words in the Leipzig Disputation with Johann Eck, from July 1519, certainly express this notion:

I grant by all means that there is a monarchy in the church militant, and that its head is not a man but Christ himself, and this on divine authority in 1 Corinthians 15 [25]: “He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” And a little earlier: “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every earthly power.” St. Augustine in the last chapter of his first book on the Trinity speaks about the reign of Christ in the present: “So it is clear that Christ, the head of the church, will transform us, who are his kingdom, to his image.”

So Matthew says in his final chapter: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” Likewise in Acts 9 [4], where Paul heard a voice from heaven – “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” – Augustine says again that the head is speaking for its members. Therefore one must not listen to those who drive Christ out of the church militant into the church triumphant, that is, the kingdom of faith. The point is this, that we do not see our head, yet we have him. Psalm 122 says, “He sits in judgment over the House of David.” Surely there are many seats on which Christ alone sits. We see the seats, not the occupant, or the king.

Coming then to the authorities of the gentleman, where he asserts that in the church militant there is one head, established by divine law and by Christ, he speaks for himself, but he proves nothing. For, in my opinion, he contradicts himself by his first authority, that of Paul in Ephesians 4 [15], since Paul speaks there most certainly about the church militant and he calls Christ its head. The same idea, contradictory to him, is to be found in 1 Corinthians 3 [5, together with 1:13]: “Who then is Apollos? Who is Cephas? Who is Paul? Is Christ divided?” and so on. Here he clearly forbids any other head than Christ. (“Leipzig Disputation between Martin Luther and Johann Eck (1519),” in German History Intersections, November 28, 2023)

Proposition 4…took two of the 95 Theses (Thesis 14, “Imperfecta … magnum timorem,” and Thesis 15, “Hie timor et horror satis est se solo… faceré poenam purgatorii”), and added, as a final clause, a passage from the Resolutions which read “horror ipse mortis… etiam se solo impedit introitum regni.” It would seem that the “new” sentence does not precisely agree with Luther’s own formulations.

4. To one on the point of death imperfect charity necessarily brings with it great fear, which in itself alone is enough to produce the punishment of purgatory, and impedes entrance into the kingdom.

Since, as I have explained, the bull was presenting the “substance” of Luther’s errors, as opposed to direct quotations, this is what we call in the field of logic a non sequitur.

Proposition 5 confined itself to a quotation of the opinion of others.

5. That there are three parts to penance: contrition, confession, and satisfaction, has no foundation in Sacred Scripture nor in the ancient sacred Christian doctors.

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Luther only had to deny any one of the three components of the sacrament of penance, to deny the Catholic doctrine that it consisted of three parts. He did this for sure in The Babylonian Captivity of the Church (published less than four months later, on 6 October 1520):

they believe they can with works make satisfaction for sin to God, when he can be satisfied only by the faith of a contrite heart! (in Three Treatises, taken from Luther’s Works, revised edition, 1970, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 216-217).

Luther possibly rejected satisfaction earlier, in #2 of his 95 Theses (posted on 31 October 1517): “This word [repentance, from #1] cannot be understood to mean sacramental penance, i.e., confession and satisfaction, which is administered by the priests.”
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He wrote his treatise, The Sacrament of Penance, in October 1519. It appears in L**uther’s Works, Volume 25, pp. 9-22. I quote:

The sacrament removes sin, not because it takes place, but because it is believed. . . . the forgiveness of guilt . . . is granted to no one on account of the worthiness of his contrition over his sins, nor on account of his works of satisfaction, but only on account of his faith . . . Although contrition and good works are not to be neglected, one is nevertheless in no case to build upon them, but only upon the sure words of Christ . . . Your contrition and works may deceive you . . . But Christ, your God, will not lie to you . . . (pp. 11-12)

[T]his sacrament does not depend . . . on your own actions . . . (p. 16)

Just so no one becomes so bold in the sight of God that he claims to have sufficient contrition. Such an attitude is presumptuous and fabricated, for no one has sufficient contrition for his sin. (p. 18)

In proposition 30 Luther was incorrectly quoted.

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30. Some articles of John Hus, condemned in the Council of Constance, are most Christian, wholly true and evangelical; these the universal Church could not condemn.
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I don’t see how this misrepresents Luther. Again in the Leipzig Disputation, Luther is recorded as having stated that many of Jan Hus’ propositions were “most Christian and evangelical” (see, “Leipzig Debate,” 8-20-19, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, New Jersey District). Again, Roland Bainton, in the most famous biography in English of Luther, Here I Stand (pp. 115-116), cited Luther from this Disputation as saying, “Among the articles of John Hus, I find many which are plainly Christian and evangelical, which the universal Church cannot condemn.”

How, exactly, then, did Pope Leo X supposedly misrepresent Luther on this score? If he did, then by the same token, so did the Protestant admirer of Luther, Roland Bainton.

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I wanted to reply to other examples from Hillerbrand, but I couldn’t determine exactly what he was referring to in Luther, that Pope Leo X allegedly misrepresented.
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Related Reading
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Medieval Catholic Corruption: Main Cause of Protestant Revolt? [6-2-03; revised slightly: 1-20-04; 10-10-17]
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Luther Film (2003): Detailed Catholic Critique [10-28-03; abridged with revised links on 3-6-17]

Luther Wasn’t a Revolutionary?! Huh?! [4-27-04]

50 Ways In Which Luther Had Departed From Catholic Orthodoxy by 1520 (and Why He Was Excommunicated) [3-29-06]

Critique of Ten Exaggerated Claims of the “Reformation” [10-31-17; its 500th anniversary date]
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Reply to a “Reformation Day” Lutheran Sermon [Vs. Nathan Rinne] (Including St. Augustine’s View on the Rule of Faith & the Perspicuity of Scripture; Luther & Lutherans’ Belief in Falling Away) [10-31-23]

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Photo Credit: Title page of Pope Leo X’s 1520 Bull, Exsurge Domine (15 June 1520), that threatened to excommunicate Martin Luther [public domain / Wikimedia Commons]

Summary: Did Pope Leo X misrepresent Martin Luther, the Protestant founder, in his bull of threatened excommunication, Exsurge Domine, (1520)? I examine some of these claims.

Anti-Catholicism

Martin Luther

Exsurge Domine

Luther vs. the Catholic Chuch

Luther's errors

Luther's excommunication

Luther's heresies

Martin Luther

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