1483 – 1546

Martin Luther

Worth knowing

An Augustinian friar and professor of Bible at Wittenberg, in Saxony.
On 31 October 1517 he sent his Ninety-Five Theses against the sale of indulgences to the Archbishop of Mainz, and posted them for debate.
At the Diet of Worms in 1521 he refused to take back his books unless he was shown to be wrong by Scripture or plain reason.
Hidden at the Wartburg castle, he translated the New Testament into German in about eleven weeks. In 1525 he answered Erasmus in The Bondage of the Will.

In Scholar’s Dream, Martin Luther has 12 books

The 95 ThesesDisputation to Explain the Virtue of Indulgences (31 October 1517)SoteriologyEthics

The ResolutionsResolutiones disputationum de indulgentiarum virtute (1518)SoteriologyRationality

The FortnightWhat happened to the Theses — a printer’s noteHistory

Thesis 1Ninety-Five Theses 1–4 — a torn sheetSoteriology

Thesis 28Ninety-Five Theses 27–29 — a torn sheetEthics

Thesis 50Ninety-Five Theses 50 — a torn sheetEthics

Thesis 62Ninety-Five Theses 62 — a torn sheetSoteriology

Christian FreedomVon der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen — On the Freedom of a Christian (1520)FaithEthics

To the Christian NobilityTo the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, Concerning the Reform of the Christian Estate (1520)EcclesiologyRationality

The Bondage of the WillDe Servo Arbitrio, to the venerable Erasmus of Rotterdam (1525)SoteriologyPresupposition

The September TestamentDas Newe Testament Deutzsch (Wittenberg, September 1522)BibleBiblical Theology

The German BibleBiblia, das ist die gantze Heilige Schrifft Deudsch (Wittenberg, 1534)BibleBiblical Theology

Passages you can read in the game

Longer excerpts the Scriptorium holds on screen for a player to sit and read, word for word.

“Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ in saying: ‘Repent ye’ … intended that the whole life of believers should be penitence.”
Ninety-Five Theses 1, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §32 (1888), public domain. (trimmed quote)

from The 95 Theses

“It is certain, that, when the money rattles in the chest, avarice and gain may be increased, but the suffrage of the Church depends on the will of God alone.”
Ninety-Five Theses 28, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §32 (1888), public domain.

from The 95 Theses

“The true treasure of the Church is the holy gospel of the glory and the grace of God.”
Ninety-Five Theses 62, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §32 (1888), public domain.

from The 95 Theses

“No one accepted the challenge, and no discussion took place. … The Theses were copied, translated, printed, and spread as on angels’ wings throughout Germany and Europe in a few weeks.”
Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §32 (1888), public domain. (trimmed quote)

from The 95 Theses

“The Christian is the lord of all, and subject to none, by virtue of faith; he is the servant of all, and subject to every one, by virtue of love.”
Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §46 (1888), public domain, stating the leading idea of Luther’s Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen (1520).

from Christian Freedom

“heresy is a spiritual thing which no iron can hew down, no fire burn, no water drown”
Luther, as collected in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII, on toleration (1888), public domain. Schaff: Luther “was the most advanced among the Reformers in the ideas of toleration and liberty.”

from Christian Freedom

“My poor monk, my poor monk, thou art going to make such a stand as neither I nor any of my companions in arms have ever done in our hottest battles. If thou art sure of the justice of thy cause, then forward in God’s name…”
Georg von Frundsberg to Luther at Worms, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §54 (1888), public domain. (trimmed quote)

from Christian Freedom

“The Romanists have, with great adroitness, drawn three walls round themselves, with which they have hitherto protected themselves, so that no one could reform them…”
Luther, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520), trans. Wace & Buchheim, First Principles of the Reformation (1883), public domain. (trimmed quote)

from To the Christian Nobility

“…a cobbler, a smith, a peasant, every man has the office and function of his calling, and yet all alike are consecrated priests and bishops…”
Luther, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520), trans. Wace & Buchheim, First Principles of the Reformation (1883), public domain. (trimmed quote)

from To the Christian Nobility

“If a little company of pious Christian laymen were taken prisoners and carried away to a desert, and had not among them a priest consecrated by a bishop, and were there to agree to elect one of them… this man would as truly be a priest, as if all the bishops and all the Popes had consecrated him.”
Luther, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520), trans. Wace & Buchheim, First Principles of the Reformation (1883), public domain. (trimmed quote)

from To the Christian Nobility

“…the most celebrated Nicene Council was neither called nor confirmed by the Bishop of Rome, but by the Emperor Constantine; and after him many other Emperors have done the same… But if the Pope alone had the power, they must all have been heretical.”
Luther, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520), trans. Wace & Buchheim, First Principles of the Reformation (1883), public domain. (trimmed quote)

from To the Christian Nobility

“…by assertion, I mean a constant adhering, affirming, confessing, defending, and invincibly persevering.”
Luther, The Bondage of the Will (1525), trans. Henry Cole (London, 1823), public domain. (trimmed quote)

from The Bondage of the Will

“The Holy Spirit is not a Sceptic, nor are what he has written on our hearts doubts or opinions, but assertions more certain, and more firm, than life itself and all human experience.”
Luther, The Bondage of the Will (1525), trans. Henry Cole (London, 1823), public domain.

from The Bondage of the Will

“What Christian would bear that assertions should be contemned? This would be at once to deny all piety and religion together…”
Luther, The Bondage of the Will (1525), trans. Henry Cole (London, 1823), public domain. (trimmed quote)

from The Bondage of the Will

“…nothing is more known and more general among Christians than assertions. Take away assertions, and you take away Christianity.”
Luther, The Bondage of the Will (1525), trans. Henry Cole (London, 1823), public domain. (trimmed quote)

from The Bondage of the Will

“Unless I am refuted and convicted by testimonies of the Scriptures or by clear arguments (since I believe neither the Pope nor the Councils alone; it being evident that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am conquered by the Holy Scriptures quoted by me, and my conscience is bound in the word of God.”
Luther before the Diet of Worms, 18 April 1521, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §54 (1888), public domain. (trimmed quote)

from The German Bible

“While Eck looked to the fathers, Luther went back to the grandfathers; he ascended from the stream of church history to the fountain of God’s Word.”
Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §37 (1888), public domain.

from The German Bible

“…the latter furnished the text from which, with the aid of Jerome’s Vulgate, the translations of Luther and Tyndale were made.”
Of Erasmus’ Greek Testament, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII, on the Bible in the vernacular (1888), public domain.

from The German Bible

Words Martin Luther’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“…by assertion, I mean a constant adhering, affirming, confessing, defending, and invincibly persevering.”
Luther, The Bondage of the Will (1525), trans. Henry Cole (London, 1823), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move A Constant Adhering

FaithArgument · power 80 · 100% accurate

In the gameDefines the word before using it, which is not Luther’s usual habit and is the reason this argument works. Assertion here is not shouting. It is holding on, and going on holding on.

Learned byThe Bondage of the Will (Lv 1)

“…the latter furnished the text from which, with the aid of Jerome’s Vulgate, the translations of Luther and Tyndale were made.”
Of Erasmus’ Greek Testament, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII, on the Bible in the vernacular (1888), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move Into Their Own Tongue

ExegesisArgument · power 84 · 100% accurate

In the gameEleven weeks in a castle under a false name, turning the Greek into German a ploughman could read out loud. The scholarship is real; the audience is the argument.

Learned byThe September Testament (Lv 1), The German Bible (Lv 1)

“…a cobbler, a smith, a peasant, every man has the office and function of his calling, and yet all alike are consecrated priests and bishops…”
Luther, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520), trans. Wace & Buchheim, First Principles of the Reformation (1883), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move The Cobbler and the Smith

EthicsArgument · power 80 · 100% accurate

In the gameWhere the priesthood of all believers actually lands: not everyone preaching, but everyone’s work counting. The smith is consecrated at his anvil and is useful to the rest from there.

Learned byTo the Christian Nobility (Lv 1)

“Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ in saying: ‘Repent ye’ … intended that the whole life of believers should be penitence.”
Ninety-Five Theses 1, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §32 (1888), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move The Whole Life of Believers

SoteriologyArgument · power 76 · 100% accurate

In the gameThesis 1, and it is a translation argument. The Vulgate said DO PENANCE; the Greek says REPENT. One word, and either repentance is a sacrament you complete or it is a life you live.

Learned byThe 95 Theses (Lv 1), The Resolutions (Lv 1), Christian Freedom (Lv 39)

Strong against

×2The Indulgence Stallan argument · why?

One word in the Latin, and the whole trade is standing on it.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

How it works in the game: the move Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

Learned byThe 95 Theses (Lv 26), The Resolutions (Lv 45), Christian Freedom (Lv 18), To the Christian Nobility (Lv 34)

“Luther himself cast his position in terms of conjugal language, with Christ’s righteousness and the believer’s sins being joyfully exchanged in the union of faith as a groom and his bride’s property are exchanged in the bond of marriage.”
Carl Trueman, “Justification and the Protestant Reformation”, TGC Concise Theology, CC BY-SA 4.0.

How it works in the game: the move The Joyful Exchange

FaithArgument · power 85 · 100% accurate

In the gameLuther did not only argue this in a courtroom. He argued it as a marriage: what is hers becomes his, what is his becomes hers, and the debt is paid because the two are one. Melanchthon supplied the legal language later; Luther saw no quarrel between them.

Learned byChristian Freedom (Lv 36)

“heresy is a spiritual thing which no iron can hew down, no fire burn, no water drown”
Luther, as collected in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII, on toleration (1888), public domain. Schaff: Luther “was the most advanced among the Reformers in the ideas of toleration and liberty.”public domain

How it works in the game: the move No Iron Can Hew It Down

EthicsArgument · power 82 · 100% accurate

In the gameWritten by a man under sentence of death, about people he disagreed with. He did not always live up to it, but he wrote it, and it comes close to the modern idea of religious freedom three hundred years early.

Learned byChristian Freedom (Lv 37)

Strong against

×2.5The Edict of Wormsa book · why?

Written by the man it is about to outlaw, about people he disagreed with, and it is nearly the modern doctrine three hundred years early.

“Christ has fulfilled the law and undergone its penalty; those who believe in him have this vicarious – or, to use Luther’s terminology, alien – obedience credited to them.”
Carl Trueman, “Justification and the Protestant Reformation”, TGC Concise Theology, CC BY-SA 4.0.

How it works in the game: the move An Alien Righteousness

SoteriologyArgument · power 90 · 100% accurate

In the gameLuther’s own word for it. The righteousness that saves is somebody else’s — fulfilled by Christ, credited to people who did not do it. Foreign, and therefore secure: what was never yours to earn is never yours to lose.

Learned byChristian Freedom (Lv 38)

Strong against

×3The Canons of Trenta book · why?

Not poured in. Credited — and the council has just told you that is the error.

×2.5The Colloquyan argument · why?

Whose righteousness, and is it credited or infused? The article was written so that nobody had to say.

“It is certain, that, when the money rattles in the chest, avarice and gain may be increased, but the suffrage of the Church depends on the will of God alone.”
Ninety-Five Theses 28, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §32 (1888), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move Avarice and Gain

EthicsArgument · power 80 · 100% accurate

In the gameGrants the mechanism and follows the money anyway. Whatever the rattle does for the dead, here is what it certainly does for the living.

Learned byThe 95 Theses (Lv 38), The Resolutions (Lv 46)

Strong against

×2.5The Indulgence Stallan argument · why?

Grants him the theology and follows the money, which is the one direction he cannot argue in.

×0.5The Leipzig Casean argument · why?

The money argument. He would rather you spent the whole day on it.

“The Holy Spirit is not a Sceptic, nor are what he has written on our hearts doubts or opinions, but assertions more certain, and more firm, than life itself and all human experience.”
Luther, The Bondage of the Will (1525), trans. Henry Cole (London, 1823), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move The Spirit Is No Sceptic

PresuppositionArgument · power 92 · 100% accurate

In the gameNames where the certainty comes from, which is the question Erasmus had stepped around. Not the strength of the arguer and not the weight of the evidence — what has been written on the heart, and by whom.

Learned byThe Bondage of the Will (Lv 38)

Strong against

×3The Charge of Uncertaintyan argument · why?

Where the certainty comes from — which is the question he stepped around.

×2.5The Essayistan argument · why?

Luther refusing the pose before the argument — the tasteful shrug is not a modest faith, it is a different subject.

×2Beyond Good and Evila book · why?

Nietzsche asks what a conviction is FOR. Luther answers where it comes from, which is the question Nietzsche does not ask.

“the law serves only to point human beings towards their duty to God and their fellows, while providing no power for its fulfillment. It therefore serves only to condemn them before God. By contrast, the gospel is a promise of salvation which needs only to be believed.”
Carl Trueman, “Justification and the Protestant Reformation”, TGC Concise Theology, CC BY-SA 4.0. The distinction emerges at the Heidelberg Disputation of 1518.

How it works in the game: the move Law and Gospel

ExegesisArgument · power 82 · 100% accurate

In the gameA way of reading, not a doctrine to recite: ask of any passage whether it is telling you what to do or telling you what has been done. Get the two the wrong way round and Scripture either crushes a reader or flatters one. Ursinus called the distinction basic to correct exegesis.

Learned byThe Bondage of the Will (Lv 39)

“The Christian is the lord of all, and subject to none, by virtue of faith; he is the servant of all, and subject to every one, by virtue of love.”
Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §46 (1888), public domain, stating the leading idea of Luther’s Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen (1520).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Lord of All, Servant of All

FaithArgument · power 86 · 100% accurate

In the gameTwo sentences that contradict each other and are both true, which is what the tract is for. Faith makes you free of every man; love makes you the servant of every one. Neither half survives without the other.

Learned byChristian Freedom (Lv 40)

Strong against

×4The Canons of Trenta book · why?

Faith alone justifies, and the faith that justifies is never alone. Canon IX condemns a doctrine in which nothing else follows — and nothing else following was never the claim.

×2The Colloquyan argument · why?

Luther’s two sentences: by faith a Christian is free lord of all, and by love the servant of all. Faith alone justifies, and love follows from it. Regensburg blurred the two.

“The true treasure of the Church is the holy gospel of the glory and the grace of God.”
Ninety-Five Theses 62, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §32 (1888), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move The True Treasure

SoteriologyArgument · power 90 · 100% accurate

In the gameThesis 62: the true treasure of the church is the gospel of God’s glory and grace. It cannot be sold, because it never belonged to anyone to sell.

Learned byThe 95 Theses (Lv 40), The Resolutions (Lv 48)

Strong against

×4The Indulgence Stallan argument · why?

It does not argue about the mechanism at all. It points at a different treasury, and there is nothing in the chest to answer with.

×3The Casuistan argument · why?

The indulgence-seller and the casuist run the same stall. Point at the real treasury and there is nothing in the drawer to answer with.

×2.5The Canons of Trenta book · why?

The gospel is the treasure, and the whole apparatus of merit is a way of talking about a different one.

×0.5Before Lutheran argument · why?

He agrees about the stall. He thinks that is the small question and he is not wrong about that.

×0.5The Cardinal’s Demandan argument · why?

He is not selling anything. Aim at the decretal, not at the chest.

×0.5The Leipzig Casean argument · why?

Indulgences. He has not mentioned indulgences since the first afternoon and he is not going to.

“Now may God help us, and give us one of those trumpets, that overthrew the walls of Jericho, so that we may blow down these walls of straw and paper…”
Luther, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520), trans. Wace & Buchheim, First Principles of the Reformation (1883), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move Trumpets of Jericho

RationalityArgument · power 84 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe walls are procedure, and procedure is paper. Luther asks for the one instrument in Scripture that brought a wall down without a siege.

Learned byTo the Christian Nobility (Lv 40)

“What Christian would bear that assertions should be contemned? This would be at once to deny all piety and religion together…”
Luther, The Bondage of the Will (1525), trans. Henry Cole (London, 1823), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move Assertions Contemned

PresuppositionArgument · power 86 · 100% accurate

In the game“Contemned” is old English for scorned, held in contempt. Erasmus said he found firm assertions distasteful and preferred to stay uncertain. Luther answers that no Christian can afford that taste. A religion that will not assert anything as true has already stopped being a religion.

Learned byThe Bondage of the Will (Lv 41)

Strong against

×2The Charge of Uncertaintyan argument · why?

Follow his position to where it goes and let him look at it.

“That all Christians are truly of the Spiritual Estate, and there is no difference among them, save of office alone.”
Luther, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520), trans. Wace & Buchheim, First Principles of the Reformation (1883), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move All of the Spiritual Estate

EcclesiologyArgument · power 88 · 100% accurate

In the gameTakes down the first wall by denying the two-tier map it stands on. There are not spiritual people and ordinary people. There is one baptism and a division of labour.

Learned byTo the Christian Nobility (Lv 42)

“No one accepted the challenge, and no discussion took place. … The Theses were copied, translated, printed, and spread as on angels’ wings throughout Germany and Europe in a few weeks.”
Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §32 (1888), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move As on Angels’ Wings

HistoryArgument · power 82 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe theses were posted for a debate that never happened. Then somebody translated them, somebody else printed them without asking, and in a fortnight the argument was in every town in Germany.

Learned byThe 95 Theses (Lv 42), The September Testament (Lv 46), The German Bible (Lv 46)

“…our conviction of the truth of Scripture must be derived from a higher source than human conjectures, Judgments, or reasons; namely, the secret testimony of the Spirit.”
Calvin, Institutes I.7.4 (trans. Beveridge, 1845), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move The Secret Testimony

PresuppositionArgument · power 88 · 100% accurate

In the gameGrants that the evidences are good and refuses to rest on them. If your certainty that God has spoken is only as strong as your best argument, then it is exactly as unstable as your worst afternoon.

Learned byChristian Freedom (Lv 42)

Strong against

×2.5Before Lutheran argument · why?

He is asking you to rest your certainty on a list. There is a older place to rest it.

×2.5The Charge of Uncertaintyan argument · why?

Calvin asks the same question and answers it the same way.

×2The Canons of Trenta book · why?

Certainty was the real quarrel. Trent condemns assurance because it thinks assurance is presumption.

“…nothing is more known and more general among Christians than assertions. Take away assertions, and you take away Christianity.”
Luther, The Bondage of the Will (1525), trans. Henry Cole (London, 1823), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move Take Away Assertions

PresuppositionArgument · power 95 · 100% accurate

In the gameRefuses the offer of a tasteful suspension of judgement. A faith that will not assert anything is not a modest faith — it is not the thing under discussion at all.

Learned byThe Bondage of the Will (Lv 43)

Strong against

×4The Charge of Uncertaintyan argument · why?

The whole answer. A faith that will not assert is not a humbler faith; it is not the thing you were discussing.

×3The Flotillaan argument · why?

Every raft asserts something in order to say that nothing can be asserted. Luther’s reply to Erasmus is the one that holds all of them at once: without assertions there is no Christianity, and no argument against it either.

×2.5Beyond Good and Evila book · why?

Luther wrote this against Erasmus three centuries earlier and it answers Nietzsche exactly: a faith that asserts nothing is not a humbler faith. It is not the thing being discussed.

×2.5Existence Precedes Essencean argument · why?

Sartre says a person must choose and be responsible. Luther answers Erasmus that a faith with no assertions in it is not a faith. A freedom with no truth to be free for is the same thing said backwards.

×2.5Truth Is Poweran argument · why?

A man who says “all truth is power” is asserting something as true. Luther pressed the same question on Erasmus. Take away assertions, and Foucault’s books have no reason to exist.

×2.5Truth Is What Works for Usan argument · why?

Luther told Erasmus that a Christian who takes away assertions has taken away Christianity. Rorty’s advice to the churches is Erasmus’s. Luther’s answer still holds: a faith that asserts nothing hard has nothing to offer anyone.

×0.5The Charge of Schisman argument · why?

He is not a sceptic. He is very certain indeed, and about this.

“My poor monk, my poor monk, thou art going to make such a stand as neither I nor any of my companions in arms have ever done in our hottest battles. If thou art sure of the justice of thy cause, then forward in God’s name…”
Georg von Frundsberg to Luther at Worms, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §54 (1888), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move My Poor Monk

FaithArgument · power 74 · 100% accurate

In the gameAn old soldier stops him on the steps and tells him the truth: this is harder than anything I have done, and I have done it in armour. Then tells him to go in anyway.

Learned byChristian Freedom (Lv 44)

Strong against

×2The Edict of Wormsa book · why?

An old soldier said this on the steps and it is worth more than the whole afternoon of Latin.

“If a little company of pious Christian laymen were taken prisoners and carried away to a desert, and had not among them a priest consecrated by a bishop, and were there to agree to elect one of them… this man would as truly be a priest, as if all the bishops and all the Popes had consecrated him.”
Luther, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520), trans. Wace & Buchheim, First Principles of the Reformation (1883), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move Taken to a Desert

EcclesiologyArgument · power 86 · 100% accurate

In the gameA thought experiment doing real work: strip away every bishop and see what is left of ordination. What remains is a church that can still call a man to preach — which tells you what ordination was ever for.

Learned byTo the Christian Nobility (Lv 44)

“The second wall is even more tottering and weak: that they alone pretend to be considered masters of the Scriptures; although they learn nothing of them all their life…”
Luther, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520), trans. Wace & Buchheim, First Principles of the Reformation (1883), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move The Second Wall

BibleArgument · power 88 · 100% accurate

In the gameAnswers the claim that only one office may read the book. Luther does not argue that the office reads it badly — he points out that the claim to sole authority has never been shown from anywhere.

Learned byTo the Christian Nobility (Lv 46)

“The Romanists have, with great adroitness, drawn three walls round themselves, with which they have hitherto protected themselves, so that no one could reform them…”
Luther, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520), trans. Wace & Buchheim, First Principles of the Reformation (1883), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move The Three Walls

RationalityArgument · power 90 · 100% accurate

In the gameNames the shape of the defence instead of arguing with its contents. Three procedural walls, each one a refusal to be examined — and once the first two fall the third has nothing to stand on.

Learned byTo the Christian Nobility (Lv 48)

“If God spare my life ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plow, shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost.”
William Tyndale, as reported in John Foxe, Acts and Monuments (1563). FOXE IS THE SOLE WITNESS and is an interested one — see research/SECONDARY-SOURCES.md §3. Public domain; no snapshot on hand.public domain

How it works in the game: the move A Boy That Driveth the Plough

BibleArgument · power 88 · 95% accurate

In the gameTyndale said this to a learned man who claimed the church’s law mattered more than God’s. It explains why he translated the Bible, and he was strangled and burned for doing it.

Learned byThe September Testament (Lv 49), The German Bible (Lv 49)

Strong against

×4Nothing Outside the Textan argument · why?

Tyndale swore that a boy at the plough would know more Scripture than the learned men who said it could not be read. That is a claim that meaning is plain enough to reach a farm. Derrida wrote books and expected them to be understood, and every reader who has followed him has assumed the same.

“…an appeal from Cajetan to the Pope, and ‘from the Pope ill informed to the Pope to be better informed’ (a papa male informato ad papam melius informandum).”
Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §35 (1888), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move To the Pope Better Informed

EcclesiologyArgument · power 78 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe most Catholic move Luther ever made, and he made it running. Appeal past the legate to the pope himself — not against the office, but from an office badly briefed to the same office briefed properly.

Learned byThe Resolutions (Lv 49)

Strong against

×3The Cardinal’s Demandan argument · why?

Appealing past him to the man he is representing — which is a move he has no standing to refuse, and he knows it.

“…the most celebrated Nicene Council was neither called nor confirmed by the Bishop of Rome, but by the Emperor Constantine; and after him many other Emperors have done the same… But if the Pope alone had the power, they must all have been heretical.”
Luther, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520), trans. Wace & Buchheim, First Principles of the Reformation (1883), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move Called by an Emperor

HistoryArgument · power 92 · 100% accurate

In the gameTakes down the third wall with a date. If only the pope may call a council, then the council that gave the church its creed was not a council — and everything decided at Nicaea goes with it.

Learned byTo the Christian Nobility (Lv 50)

Strong against

×0.5The Demand for Miraclesan argument · why?

Who called which council is not what he asked. He asked what you have to show.

“…that a general council as well as a Pope may err, and had no right to impose any article of faith not founded in the Scriptures.”
Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §37 (1888), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move A Council May Err

HistoryArgument · power 84 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe thing he had not meant to say and could not unsay. Cornered about Hus, he went further than he had planned — and a general council joined the pope on the list of things that can be wrong.

Learned byThe Resolutions (Lv 51)

Strong against

×2The Leipzig Casean argument · why?

Said out loud, on purpose this time, instead of extracted under pressure.

“Unless I am refuted and convicted by testimonies of the Scriptures or by clear arguments (since I believe neither the Pope nor the Councils alone; it being evident that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am conquered by the Holy Scriptures quoted by me, and my conscience is bound in the word of God.”
Luther before the Diet of Worms, 18 April 1521, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §54 (1888), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move Scripture or Plain Reason

BibleArgument · power 95 · 100% accurate

In the gameNot defiance. A rule, stated in a hostile court, about what is allowed to change a man’s mind — and it puts popes and councils on the list of things that can be wrong.

Learned byThe September Testament (Lv 52), The German Bible (Lv 52)

Strong against

×4The Leipzig Casean argument · why?

He asked whether a council can be wrong. Here is the rule that answers him, and it took a hostile court and two more years to say it out loud.

×3The Casuistan argument · why?

"Follow the modern casuists, not the ancient fathers" — answered by the rule that a thing stands or falls on Scripture.

×3The Edict of Wormsa book · why?

It cannot be refuted by an edict, which is the only instrument in the room.

×2.5The Cardinal’s Demandan argument · why?

He came for a retraction and is being offered a rule. There is no procedure for that in the mandate in his hand.

×2Another Testamentan argument · why?

Luther would be corrected by Scripture and nothing else. A new book that corrects the old one is exactly what that standard refuses!

×2The Book of Mormona book · why?

Luther would be corrected by Scripture and nothing else. A new book that corrects the old one is exactly what that standard refuses!

×0.5The Charge of Noveltyan argument · why?

A rule about what changes a mind. He is not asking what changes a mind; he is asking what year it started.

“(3) Books against his popish opponents: in these he confessed to have been more violent than was proper, but even these he could not retract without giving aid and comfort to his enemies, who would triumph and make things worse.”
Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §54 (1888), public domain, summarising Luther’s speech of 18 April 1521.public domain

How it works in the game: the move Three Classes of Books

RationalityArgument · power 78 · 100% accurate

In the gameLuther’s answer at Worms, which few remember. He sorted his books first: plain gospel that friend and foe both accept, books against abuses, and books where he had been ruder than he should have been. He could not take back even those.

Learned byThe Resolutions (Lv 53)

Strong against

×2.5The Edict of Wormsa book · why?

Twenty-five books on a bench and not one of them read out. Sorting them is the answer nobody wanted.

×2The Cardinal’s Demandan argument · why?

Sorting the charge before answering it. He asked for one word and is being handed a distinction.

“While Eck looked to the fathers, Luther went back to the grandfathers; he ascended from the stream of church history to the fountain of God’s Word.”
Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §37 (1888), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move Back to the Grandfathers

HistoryArgument · power 80 · 100% accurate

In the gameSchaff’s own summary of the difference between the two men, and it is a method rather than a jibe: when the fathers are quoted at you, go and read what the fathers were reading.

Learned byThe German Bible (Lv 55)

Strong against

×2.5Before Lutheran argument · why?

A thousand years of fathers, and you have been carrying half of them since Antioch.

×2The Charge of Noveltyan argument · why?

He says you invented it. Go further back than he has gone.

×2The Consent of the Fathersan argument · why?

He has a list of fathers. You have been carrying half of them since Antioch.

×2The Leipzig Casean argument · why?

He is quoting the fathers at you. Go where they were reading.

“I am sorry that the learned doctor only dips into the Scripture as the water-spider into the water—nay, that he seems to flee from it as the Devil from the Cross. I prefer, with all deference to the Fathers, the authority of the Scripture, which I herewith recommend to the arbiters of our cause.”
Luther at the Leipzig Disputation, July 1519, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §37 (1888), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move The Water-Spider

HistoryArgument · power 86 · 95% accurate

In the gameHis closing, and it is not really about Eck. It is about a whole method: quote the fathers on the fathers on the Scripture, and touch the Scripture itself as lightly as an insect standing on a pond.

Learned byThe Resolutions (Lv 55)

Strong against

×2.5The Leipzig Casean argument · why?

The best line Luther spoke in three weeks — and notice that it still did not win him the room.

Who else was alive

Martin Luther against everyone else in the game.

A.D. 450A.D. 700A.D. 950A.D. 1200A.D. 1450A.D. 1700A.D. 1950

Boethius Boniface John of Damascus Daniel of Winchester Timothy I Alcuin of York Pope Leo III Eulogius of Córdoba Paul Alvaro of Córdoba Rimbert Humbert of Silva Candida Michael Cerularius Peter III of Antioch Anselm of Canterbury Ari Thorgilsson Ebo and Herbord Thomas Aquinas John Wyclif Lorenzo Valla Girolamo Savonarola Pope Paul III Martin Luther Miles Coverdale William Tyndale Emperor Charles V John Calvin Teresa of Ávila John Jewel The Council of Trent The English exiles at Geneva Hugo Grotius René Descartes John Owen Blaise Pascal John Bunyan Louis XIV of France Pierre Bayle Joseph Butler Jonathan Edwards Thomas Reid George Campbell William Paley John Henry Newman J. C. Ryle Friedrich Nietzsche James Orr B. B. Warfield Herman Bavinck W. R. Sorley James Denney J. Gresham Machen

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate51 authors sit outside this window