Thursday, July 07, 2022

Luther: "Seldom has the pope overcome anyone with Scripture and with reason"

 ...From the depths of cyberspace:

I came across another quote, allegedly from Luther: "Seldom has the pope overcome anyone with Scripture and with reason." Sometime after they tried to feed him Worms, I guess!  (There was no attribution, so...)
Documentation
The person posting this makes a correct observation that the quote is often posted without meaningful documentation, however it's not impossible to locate the source via a few cyber-searches.  The English version of this quote may originate from Roland Bainton's biography of Luther, Here I Stand, a Life of Martin Luther.  Bainton documents the burning of Luther's books at Cologne and then the subsequent event of Papal documents being burned at Wittenberg by Luther and his supporters.  Bainton records Luther saying,   
Since they have burned my books, I burn theirs. The canon law was included because it makes the pope a god on earth. So far I have merely fooled with this business of the pope. All my articles condemned by Antichrist are Christian. Seldom has the pope overcome anyone with Scripture and with reason.
Bainton cites "VII, 161-182" from WA. The careful reader will observe this amounts to twenty-one pages of text for five sentences! Bainton is actually citing the entire document the quote comes from: Warumb des Bapsts und siner Jungernn bucher vonDoct. Martino Luther vorbrant seynn.  The quote comes from the very end of the document (p.181):


This text has been translated into English: Why the Books of the Pope and His Disciples Were Burned by Doctor Martin Luther (LW:31, 382-395). The quote appears on pages 394-395

Context
I am willing to let everyone have his own opinion. I am moved most by the fact that the pope has never once refuted with Scripture or reason anyone who has spoken, written, or acted against him, but has at all times suppressed, exiled, burned, or otherwise strangled him with force and bans, through kings, and other partisans, or with deceit and false words, of which I shall convince him from history. Nor has he ever been willing to submit to a court of justice or judgment, but at all times bawled that he was above Scripture, judgment, and authority.
Ego unicuique libenter suum permiserim iudicium, nam me hoc movet potissimum, quod papa nunquam, ne semel quidem, quemquam vicerit vel Scriptura vel ratione, qui contra ipsum dixisset, scripsisset, vel fecisset, sed semper vi, excommunicatione, per reges, principes et reliquos fautores, aut per dolos malos et falsa verba oppresserit, eiecerit, combusserit, vel alioqui occiderit. Cuius rei eum possum testibus omnibus historiis convincere. Eoque nomine nunquam voluit neque iudicium neque sententiam pati, semper ausus praetendere et obstrepere, se esse superiorem omnibus Scripturis, iudiciis et potestatibus. 

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