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KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural
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And when he sayth peter and paul
commaunded vs / to obey oure superioures. That ys trouth /
they commaunded vs to obey the temperall swerde whych the
pope wyll not. And they commaunded to obey the bysshopes in
the doctrine of christe and not in their
awne. And we teach not to breake all thynges
rashly / as M. More
vntrulie reporteth on vs (which is to be sene
in oure bokes / if men wil loke vppon them). Of tradicions
therfore vnderstond generally.
He that maye be fre is a fole to be bonde. But
yf thorow wilinesse / thou be brought in to bondage: then
yf the tradicion hurte thy soule
and the fayth / they are to be broken
immediatly / though wyth the losse of thy lyfe. If they
greue the body only / then are they to be
born tyll god take them off / for breakynge the
peace and vnite.
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peter . . . superioures. Cf. CWM 6/1.106/30–33.
obey . . .
swerde. For temporal rulers, cf. Eph. 6.5–7, Tit. 2.9, Tit.
3.1, Heb. 13.17, 1 Pet. 2.13–14, 18.
obey . . .
awne. For spiritual leaders, cf. 2 Pet. 2.1, Gal. 1.8.
Of tradicions . .
. vnite. Erasmus had lamented that the life of Christians is
burdened by "human constitutions" that impose ceremonial
practices. Still, liturgical ceremonies, with due moderation, add proper
solemnity to divine worship. Cf. Ratio verae theologiae (1518) in Holborn 238–39, 252.
Luther formulated his protest against obligatory ecclesiastical
traditions in Avoiding the Doctrines of
Men, a short tract of 1522 that also circulated in a 1525 Latin
version. Luther stressed that two Pauline texts, 1 Tim. 4.1–4 and Col.
2.16–23, foresaw and condemned such attempts to ensnare Christian
consciences regarding fasts and feasts (WA 10/2.72–92; LW 35.131–47).
Here Christian freedom rests on ten biblical texts that undercut any
ecclesiastical authority to lay down binding obligations. The observance
of fasts and feasts is not evil in itself, but making them obligatory
is, according to Luther, to add to God's commandments in contravention
of Deut. 4.2 and to make God's good creatures defiling, against Matt.
15.11.
Johann Eck dedicated Ch. 13 of his Enchiridion,
"On Human Constitutions " (Fraenkel 146–57; Battles 93–99), to
demonstrating from other biblical texts that church authorities are
empowered to enact laws concerning matters that are coherent with
Scripture and that promote discipline and communal activity. Eck also
took up eight texts cited by reformers and argued that each of them was
wrongly used in the polemic against "traditions." In 1530 the same
argument unfolded between Articles 15 and 26 of the Augsburg
Confession (cf. The Book of Concord 36f and
63–70) and the corresponding articles of the imperial Die Confutatio der Confessio Augustana (112–15 and 176–85).
The 1530 argument is treated in Wicks, "Abuses" 280–85 (Augsburg
Confession) and 297–300 (Confutatio). For
fasting, cf. [commentary notes on F1v, “referrynge theyr fast . . . spirite”; G2, “wenisdaye . . . S. katerine”; G2, “fast sayntes euens”].
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Then how sore maketh he christes burthen. If yt
be so sore / why is Master More so cruell to helpe the
bysshopes to lade vs with moare? But surelye he speaketh
verye vndiscretelye. For christ did not lade vs with one
sillable moare then we were euer bounde to /
nether did he saue interpret the law trulye.
And besides that / he geueth vn to al his / loue vnto the
law: which loue maketh all
thynges easye to be born that were before
impossible.
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For . . .
trulye. Cf. Matt. 5.17–19.
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And when he saith / ye be the salt of the erth
was spoken for the bysshops and prestes only yt ys vntrue /
but yt was spoken generally vn to all that beleue and know
the trueth / that they shulde be salt vnto the ignoraunt /
and the perfecter vn to the weker / ech to other
euery man in hys measure. And Morouer yf yt be
spoken vn to the
prelates only / how fortuneth yt that Master
More ys so busye to
salte the
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ye be the salt of the
erth. Matt. 5.13. The rest of the verse is paraphrased below,
"vnsauerye . . . vnderfote" [H2v]. "The notion that this
verse applies only to priests and bishops is probably taken from the Glossa ordinaria (PL 114.91)" (CWM 6/2.635).
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