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Letter to John Staupitz
Accompanying
the "Resolutions" to the XCV Theses_
by Dr. Martin Luther, 1518
Published in:
_Works of Martin Luther_
Adolph Spaeth, L.D. Reed, Henry Eyster Jacobs, et Al., Trans. & Eds.
(Philadelphia: A. J. Holman Company, 1915),
Volume 1, pp. 39-43.
LETTER TO JOHN STAUPITZ
ACCOMPANYING THE "RESOLUTIONS" TO THE XCV THESES
1518
To his Reverend and Dear Father
JOHN STAUPITZ,
Professor of Sacred Theology,
Vicar of the Augustinian Order,
Brother Martin Luther,
his pupil,
sendeth greeting.
I remember, dear Father, that once, among those pleasant and
wholesome talks of thine, with which the Lord Jesus ofttimes
gives me wondrous consolation, the word poenitential was
mentioned. We were moved with pity for many consciences, and
for those tormentors who teach, with rules innumerable and
unbearable, what they call a modus confitendi. Then we heard
thee say as with a voice from heaven, that there is no true
penitence which does not begin with love of righteousness and
of God, and that this love, which others think to be the end
and the completion of penitence, is rather its beginning.
This word of thine stuck in me like a sharp arrow of the
mighty, and from that time forth I began to compare it with
the texts of Scripture which teach penitence. Lo, there began
a joyous game! The words frollicked with me everywhere! They
laughed and gamboled around this saying. Before that there was
scarcely a word in all the Scriptures more bitter to me than
"penitence," though I was busy making pretences to God and
trying to produce a forced, feigned love; but now there is no
word which has for me a sweeter or more pleasing sound than
"penitence." For God's commands are sweet, when we find that
they are to be read not in books alone, but in the wounds of
our sweet Saviour.
After this it came about that, by the grace of the learned men
who dutifully teach us Greek and Hebrew, I learned that this
word is in Greek metanoia and is derived from meta and noun,
i.e., post and mentem, so that poenitentia or metanoia is a
"coming to one's senses," and is a knowledge of one's own
evil, gained after punishment has been accepted and error
acknowledged; and this cannot possibly happen without a change
in our heart and our love. All this answers so aptly to the
theology of Paul, that nothing, at least in my judgment, can
so aptly illustrate St. Paul.
Then I went on and saw that metanoia can be derived, though
not without violence, not only from post and mentem, but also
from trans and mentem, so that metanoia signifies a changing
of the mind and heart, because it seemed to indicate not only
a change of the heart, but also a manner of changing it, i.e.,
the grace of God. For that "passing over of the mind," which
is true repentance, is of very frequent mention in the
Scriptures. Christ has displayed the true significance of that
old word "Passover"; and long before the Passover, Abraham was
a type of it, when he was called a "pilgrim,"] i.e., a
"Hebrew," that is to say, one who "passed over" into
Mesopotamia, as the Doctor of Bourgos learnedly explains. With
this accords, too, the title of the Psalm in which Jeduthun,
i.e., "the pilgrim," is introduced as the singer.
Depending on these things, I ventured to think those men false
teachers who ascribed so much to works of penitence that they
left us scarcely anything of penitence itself except trivial
satisfactions and laborious confession, because, forsooth,
they had derived their idea from the Latin words poenitentiam
agere, which indicate an action, rather than a change of
heart, and are in no way an equivalent for the Greek metanoia.
While this thought was boiling in my mind, suddenly new
trumpets of indulgences and bugles of remissions began to peal
and to bray all about us; but they were not intended to arouse
us to keen eagerness for battle. In a word, the doctrine of
true penitence was passed by, and they presumed to praise not
even that poorest part of penitence which is called
"satisfaction," but the remission of that poorest part of
penitence; and they praised it so highly that such praise was
never heard before. Then, too, they taught impious and false
and heretical doctrines with such authority (I wished to say
"with such assurance") that he who even muttered anything to
the contrary under his breath, would straightway be consigned
to the fames as a heretic, and condemned to eternal
malediction.
Unable to meet their rage half-way, I determined to enter a
modest dissent, and to call their teaching into question,
relying on the opinion of all the doctors and of the whole
Church, that to render satisfaction is better than to secure
the remission of satisfaction, i.e., to buy indulgences. Nor
is there anybody who ever taught otherwise. Therefore, I
published my Disputation; in other words, I brought upon my
head all the curses, high, middle and low, which these lovers
of money (I should say "of souls") are able to send or to have
sent upon me. For these most courteous men, armed, as they
are, with very dense acumen, since they cannot deny what I
have said, now pretend that in my Disputation I have spoken
against the power of the Supreme Pontiff.
That is the reason, Reverend Father, why I now regretfully
come out in public. For I have ever been a lover of my corner,
and prefer to look upon the beauteous passing show of the
great minds of our age, rather than to be looked upon and
laughed at. But I see that the bean must appear among the
cabbages, and the black must be put with the white, for the
sake of seemliness and loveliness.
I ask, therefore, that thou wilt take this foolish work of
mine and forward it, if possible, to the most Excellent
Pontiff, Leo X, where it may plead my cause against the
designs of those who hate me. Not that I wish thee to share my
danger! Nay, I wish this to be done at my peril only. Christ
will see whether what I have said is His or my own; and
without His permission there is not a word in the Supreme
Pontiff's tongue, nor is the heart of the king in his own
hand. He is the Judge whose verdict I await from the Roman
See.
As for those threatening friends of mine, I have no answer for
them but that word of Reuchlin's -- "He who is poor fears
nothing; he has nothing to lose." Fortune I neither have nor
desire; if I have had reputation and honor, he who destroys
them is always at work; there remains only one poor body, weak
and wearied with constant hardships, and if by force or wile
they do away with that (as a service to God), they will but
make me poorer by perhaps an hour or two of life. Enough for
me is the most sweet Saviour and Redeemer, my Lord Jesus
Christ, to Whom I shall always sing my song; if any one is
unwilling to sing with me, what is that to me? Let him howl,
if he likes, by himself.
The Lord Jesus keep thee eternally, my gracious Father!
Wittenberg, Day of the Holy Trinity, MDXVIII.
_________________________________________________________________
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