Christian Freedom
Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen — On the Freedom of a Christian (1520)
Martin Luther — written for the pope, and meant it
A tract addressed to the pope by a man Rome had already condemned, with no polemics in it at all.
- Catch rate
- 55 / 255
- Base research
- 262
- Stat total
- 312
Base stats
Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.
Why these numbers
The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.
A short tract, and the one thing of his that has never gone out of use in any tradition. Catholics quote it too.
It keeps free of all polemics on purpose. That costs it force and buys it something else.
Almost nothing to attack. It grants everything an opponent could want granted and then says the same thing anyway.
Widely read, in German and then in Latin, and it is short enough to finish in an evening.
Cited for this book
Written in October 1520, four months after the bull that threatened him with excommunication and two months before he burned it, and sent to Leo X with a courteous covering letter. The leading idea is two sentences that contradict each other and are both true: by faith a Christian is lord of all and subject to none; by love he is servant of all and subject to every one. This is the last thing Luther wrote while he still thought a letter to Rome might help.
Moves learned
By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.
| Lv | Move | Type | Cat. | Pwr | Acc | PP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Random Verse | Bible | Argument | 10 | 100% | 30 |
| 35 | Chapter… | Bible | Scripture | — | — | 12 |
| 36 | The Joyful Exchange | Faith | Argument | 85 | 100% | 10 |
| 37 | No Iron Can Hew It Down | Ethics | Argument | 82 | 100% | 10 |
| 38 | An Alien Righteousness | Soteriology | Argument | 90 | 100% | 10 |
| 39 | The Whole Life of Believers | Soteriology | Argument | 76 | 100% | 15 |
| 40 | Lord of All, Servant of All | Faith | Argument | 86 | 100% | 10 |
| 42 | The Secret Testimony | Presupposition | Argument | 88 | 100% | 10 |
| 44 | My Poor Monk | Faith | Argument | 74 | 100% | 15 |
Read it: Lord of All, Servant of All
The passages the Scriptorium holds on screen, word for word from a public-domain translation. Written in Latin.
“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).
“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.”
“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, elided.
Written in October 1520, four months after the bull that threatened him with excommunication and two months before he burned it — and sent to Leo X with a courteous covering letter.
The leading idea is two sentences that contradict each other and are both true. This is the last thing Luther wrote while he still thought a letter to Rome might help.
The old soldier’s blessing on the way into the hall — “my poor monk” — is not in the treatise. It is what a man who fought for a living said to him at the door.