The ''Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope'' (1537) (), ''The Tractate'' for short, is the seventh

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

credal document of the

Book of Concord ''The Book of Concord'' (1580) or ''Concordia'' (often referred to as the ''Lutheran Confessions'') is the historic doctrinal standard of the Lutheran Church, consisting of ten credal documents recognized as authoritative in Lutheranism since ...

Philip Melanchthon Philip Melanchthon. (born Philipp Schwartzerdt; 16 February 1497 – 19 April 1560) was a German Lutheran reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lu ...

, its author, completed it on February 17, 1537 during the assembly of princes and theologians in Smalcald. The ''Tractate'' was ratified and subscribed by this assembly as an appendix to the

Augsburg Confession The Augsburg Confession, also known as the Augustan Confession or the Augustana from its Latin name, ''Confessio Augustana'', is the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church and one of the most important documents of the Protestant Re ...

, which did not have a specific article dealing with the office of the

papacy The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

. Defining their stance on the papacy was deemed important by the Lutherans as they faced the impending church council that would ultimately meet as the

Council of Trent The Council of Trent ( la, Concilium Tridentinum), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trento, Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italian Peninsula, Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation ...

. The ''Tractate'' historically was considered part of Luther's

Smalcald Articles The Smalcald Articles or Schmalkald Articles (german: Schmalkaldische Artikel) are a summary of Lutheran doctrine, written by Martin Luther in 1537 for a meeting of the Schmalkaldic League in preparation for an intended ecumenical Council of the C ...

because both documents came out of the Smalcald assembly and the ''Tractate'' was placed after the

in the

Melanchthon used much the same rhetorical style in ''The Tractate'' as he did in the

Apology of the Augsburg Confession The ''Apology of the Augsburg Confession'' was written by Philipp Melanchthon during and after the 1530 Diet of Augsburg as a response to the '' Pontifical Confutation of the Augsburg Confession'', Charles V's commissioned official Roman Catholic ...

(1531): both were originally written in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

. Melanchthon used biblical and patristic material to present and support three main points: * 1) The

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

is not head of the Christian Church and superior to all other bishops by divine right (''de iure divino''). * 2) The

and bishops do not hold civil authority by divine right. * 3) The claim of the Bull ''

Unam sanctam ' is a papal bull that was issued by Pope Boniface VIII on 18 November 1302. It laid down dogmatic propositions on the unity of the Catholic Church, the necessity of belonging to it for eternal salvation, the position of the Pope as supreme he ...

'' (1302) that obedience to the Pope is necessary for salvation is invalid since it contradicts the doctrine of

justification by faith ''Justificatio sola fide'' (or simply ''sola fide''), meaning justification by faith alone, is a soteriological doctrine in Christian theology commonly held to distinguish the Lutheran and Reformed traditions of Protestantism, among others, f ...

. Melancthon himself held these views to be conditional. Should the Pope renounce his claims to power by Divine Right, he could nevertheless maintain them for the sake of good order in the church by human right. Luther's position that the claims of the papacy undermine the Gospel is set forth in this treatise as the position of the Lutheran

laity In religious organizations, the laity () consists of all members who are not part of the clergy, usually including any non-ordained members of religious orders, e.g. a nun or a lay brother. In both religious and wider secular usage, a layperson ...

and clergy, and it achieved "confessional" or "symbolic" status rather quickly: the authoritative teaching of what would become the evangelical Lutheran Church.

Bibliography

*Bente, Friedrich.
Historical Introductions to the Book of Concord.
' (1921) New reprint edition. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1995.
View excerpt here
*Fagerberg, Holsten.
A New Look at the Lutheran Confessions (1529-1537).
' Gene Lund, trans. Paperback Edition. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1988. * Forell, George W. ''The Augsburg Confession: A Contemporary Commentary.'' Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1968. LOC 68-25798 *Grane, Lief, ''The Augsburg Confession: A Commentary.'' translated by John H. Rasmussen. Minneapolis, Augsburg Publishing House, 1986. *Kolb, Robert and James A. Nestingen, eds.
Sources and Contexts of the Book of Concord
'. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001. *Preus, Jacob A.O.
The Second Martin: The Life and Theology of Martin Chemnitz.
' St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2004. *Preus, Robert D. and Wilbert H. Rosin, eds.
A Contemporary Look at the Formula of Concord.
' St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1978. *Preus, Robert D.
Getting Into the Theology of Concord.
Reprint. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2004. *Preus, Robert D.
Theology of Post-Reformation Lutheranism: Volume I.
' St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1972. * Reu, Johann Michael.
The Augsburg Confession.
' Reprint. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1995. * Schlink, Edmund.
Theology of the Lutheran Confessions.
' Translated by P. Koehneke and H. Bouman. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, Reprint 2004. * Schmauk, Theodore.
The Confessional Principle and the Confessions of the Lutheran Church.
' Translated by C. Theodore Benze. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, Reprint 2005. * Wengert, Timothy J. ''A Formula for Parish Practice: Using the Formula of Concord in Congregations''. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 2006.

References

External links

{{Martin Luther 1537 works Book of Concord Treatises

Contents

Bibliography

References

External links