Martin Luther

On Papal Authority

This was one of Luther's earliest criticisms, present in the Ninety-Five Theses. It is important to understand the nature of his criticism. He did not attack the papacy because it did wrong things, or because there were corrupt or wicked popes. Instead, he criticized, condemned and utterly rejected even the best of the popes, for he condemned and utterly rejected the very notion of papacy. The whole thing was a lie, from the very beginning. The papacy was, as he stated in an essay from late in his life, an institution of the Devil.

This was typical Luther: radical, sweeping, confrontational. There was in his mind never a question of whether the pope had the authority to do this or that; the pope had no authority whatsoever. Indeed, Luther did not hesitate to call the pope the Antichrist.

As in other areas, Luther took a position that permitted no compromise, no discussion, no reconciliation. For all that he declared that he never intended to found his own church, from the very beginning he made statements that guaranteed there could be no retreat. Here are samples from that 1545 essay:

"… doctrinal agreement … is utterly impossible unless the pope has his papacy abolished. Therefore avoid and flee those who seek the middle of the road. … There can be no compromise."

It naturally followed that everything created by the papacy as an institution was likewise execrable, to be rejected by all good Christians. The College of Cardinals, the whole system of penances, papal courts, the Papal States, all of it should go. It was an extraordinary thing to say, that the leader of Western Christianity for the past millenium and a half, along with the whole structure of Church government, should simply be abolished. But for Luther, there was never any question. It had to go, or at least the faithful should abandon it. There could be no compromise.