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In September, 1516, Luther arranged for a remarkable Disputation to be held at Wittenberg by Bartholomew Bernhardi of Feldkirchen, in Swabia, on the occasion of the latter’s promotion to be Lecturer on the Sentences. From a confidential letter of Luther’s to Johann Lang, Prior at Erfurt, we learn some particulars as to the motive which determined the choice of the theses, which latter are still extant. From this we see that the Disputation was held on account of those who “barked” at Luther’s lectures. “In order to shut the mouths of yelping curs, and at the same time to let the opinion of others be heard,” the theses on man’s absolute inability to do what is good were purposely worded in a most offensive form. This Disputation brought over Amsdorf, hitherto an opponent, to Luther’s side. Amsdorf sent a copy of the theses to Erfurt in order to elicit the opinion of the professors there. But, fearing lest the storm he foresaw might be directed against Luther, he deleted the superscription bearing his name (“Sub eximio viro Martino Luthero Augustiniano,” etc.). At the Disputation Luther presided, a fact which is all the more significant when we remember that he was not at that time Dean.

Among the theses to be debated one runs as follows: Man is absolutely unable by his own unaided efforts to keep the commandments of God; he merely seeks his own, and what is of the flesh; he himself is “vanity of vanities” and makes creatures, who in themselves are good, also to be vain; he is necessarily under the dominion of sin, “he sins even when doing the best he can; for of himself he is unable either to will or to think.”[819]

It is not surprising that theses such as this again roused the antagonism of the followers of the old theology. Some of Luther’s former colleagues among the Erfurt monks considered themselves directly challenged. Trutfetter and Usingen, two esteemed professors at Erfurt, having dared to point out the difference between these theses and the Catholic teaching as expressed in the works of Gabriel Biel, Luther wrote to their Superior, Johann Lang: “Let them alone, let your Gabrielists marvel at my ‘position’ (i.e. at the theses), for mine too (i.e. Biel’s Catholic-minded supporters at Wittenberg) still continue to be astonished.” “Master Amsdorf formerly belonged to them, but is now half converted.” “But I won’t have them disputing with me as to whether Gabriel said this, or Raphael or Michael said that. I know what Gabriel teaches; it is commendable so long as he does not begin speaking of Grace, Charity, Hope, Faith and Virtue, for then he becomes a Pelagian, like Scotus, his master. But it is not necessary for me to speak further on this matter here.”[820]

In the same letter he deals some vigorous blows at Gratian and the highly esteemed Peter Lombard; according to him they have made of the doctrine of penance a torment rather than a remedy; they took their matter from the treatise “On True and False Penance,” attributed to St. Augustine; but he had been compelled to deny that this “stupid and foolish” work was by St. Augustine. It is, however, quite certain that this spurious work did not constitute “the chief authority for the mediæval doctrine of Penance,”[821] neither were its contents so untheological as we are expected to believe.

Bernhardi, Luther’s very devoted pupil, who held the Disputation mentioned above, has been considered by some to have been the first priest of the evangelical faith to contract matrimony.[822] This, however, is not quite correct as others preceded him. But Bernhardi, as Provost of Kemberg, was one of the first to draw this practical inference from the freedom of the gospel.

A second pupil, Franz Günther of Nordhausen, who was chosen by Luther to conduct in the following year a Disputation which partook still more of the nature of a challenge, became later a prominent partisan of Lutheranism. His Disputation was held at Wittenberg, September 4, 1517, under his master’s presidency, with the object of obtaining the degree of Baccalaureus Biblicus. His 97 theses faithfully echo Luther’s teaching, particularly his antagonism to Aristotle and Scholasticism. The theses were scattered abroad with the object of making converts. At Erfurt and elsewhere the friends of the new opinions to whom Luther despatched the theses were to work for the spread of the theological revolution. As a result of this Disputation his Erfurt opponents again complained that Luther was too audacious, that he was overbearing in his assertions and was flinging broadcast wicked censures of the Catholic doctors and their teaching. With these complaints, however, the matter ended, no one daring to do more.

At the end of Günther’s theses the following words occur in print: “In all these propositions our intention was to say nothing, and we believe we have said nothing, which is not in accordance with Catholic doctrine and with ecclesiastical writers.”[823] Yet in these propositions we read: “Man, who has become a rotten tree, can will and do only what is evil.... Man’s will is not free but captive” (thesis 5). “The only predisposition to grace is the eternal election by God and predestination” (29). “From beginning to end we are not masters of our actions but servants” (39). “We do not become righteous by doing what is right, but only after we have become righteous do we perform what is right” (40). “The Jewish ceremonial law is not a good law, neither are the Ten Commandments, and whatever is taught and commanded with regard to outward observances” (82, 83). “The only good law is the love of God which is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost” (84).

The following will suffice to give an idea of Günther’s theses on the relation of Aristotle to Christian philosophy and theology; “Aristotle’s Ethics almost in its entirety is the worst enemy of grace” (41). “It is not merely incorrect to say that without Aristotle no man can become a theologian; on the contrary, we must say: he is no theologian who does not become one without Aristotle” (43, 44).

At Wittenberg the Disputation called forth enthusiastic applause among both professors and students, and the defender was unanimously (“uno consensu dominorum”) proclaimed a Bachelor. So deeply was Luther concerned in this manifesto, that he expressed to Lang his readiness to go to Erfurt and there personally to conduct the defence of all the theses. He scoffs at those who had called them not merely paradoxical but kakodoxical and even kakistodoxical (execrable).[824] “To us,” he says, “they can only be orthodox.” He was very zealous in distributing them far and wide, and asked Christoph Scheurl, the Humanist of Nuremberg, to whom he sent some, to forward a copy to “our Eck ... who is so learned and intellectual”; such was then his opinion of his future adversary.[825]

Scheurl, and no doubt Luther’s other friends also, took care to spread the bold theses. This Humanist, who was prejudiced in favour of Luther, ventured to prophesy a great revolution in the domain of Divinity. At the commencement of his reply to Luther’s letter he greets him with the wish, that “the theology of Christ may be reinstated, and that we may walk in His Law!”[826]

This Disputation at Wittenberg has been described by Protestants as a “decisive blow struck at mediæval doctrine.”[827] That it was an open challenge admits of no doubt. Reticence and humility were not among Luther’s qualities. It would be to misrepresent him completely were we to assign to him, as special characteristics, bashfulness, timidity and love of retirement; however much he himself occasionally claims such virtues as his. On the other hand, he also assures us that no one can say of him that he wished the theses of this Disputation to be merely “whispered in a corner.”

With this impulse to bring his new doctrines boldly before the world may be connected his taking, about this time, in one of his letters the name Eleutherius, or Free-spirited. This was his way of rendering into Greek his name Luther, agreeably with the customs of the time.

Only a few weeks after the second Disputation which we have been considering, he came forward with his Indulgence theses against Tetzel, of which the result was to be another great Disputation. Disputations seemed to him a very desirable method of arousing sympathy for his ideas; these learned encounters with his opponents gave him a good opportunity for displaying his fiery temper, his quick-wittedness, his talent as an orator, his general knowledge, and particularly his familiarity with the Bible.

But this is not yet the place to discuss the Indulgence theses against Tetzel.

The better to appreciate the state of Luther’s mind at the time when he was becoming settled in his new theological principles, we may be permitted to consider here, by anticipation, another great Disputation on faith and grace, that, namely, of Heidelberg, which took place after the outbreak of Luther’s hostilities with Tetzel. In comparison with these questions, the Indulgence controversy was of less importance, as we shall have occasion to see; it was in reality an accidental occurrence, though one pregnant with consequences, and, as it turned out, the most decisive of all. The common idea that the quarrel with Tetzel was the real starting-point of Luther’s whole conflict with the Church is utterly untenable.