The Resolutions

“Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ in saying: ‘Repent ye’ … intended that the whole life of believers should be penitence.”

Ninety-Five Theses 1, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §32 (1888), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

In the gameThesis 1, and it is a translation argument. The Vulgate said DO PENANCE; the Greek says REPENT. One word, and either repentance is a sacrament you complete or it is a life you live.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”

Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

“It is certain, that, when the money rattles in the chest, avarice and gain may be increased, but the suffrage of the Church depends on the will of God alone.”

Ninety-Five Theses 28, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §32 (1888), public domain.public domain

In the gameGrants the mechanism and follows the money anyway. Whatever the rattle does for the dead, here is what it certainly does for the living.

“The true treasure of the Church is the holy gospel of the glory and the grace of God.”

Ninety-Five Theses 62, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §32 (1888), public domain.public domain

In the gameThesis 62: the true treasure of the church is the gospel of God’s glory and grace. It cannot be sold, because it never belonged to anyone to sell.

“…an appeal from Cajetan to the Pope, and ‘from the Pope ill informed to the Pope to be better informed’ (a papa male informato ad papam melius informandum).”

Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §35 (1888), public domain.public domain

In the gameThe most Catholic move Luther ever made, and he made it running. Appeal past the legate to the pope himself — not against the office, but from an office badly briefed to the same office briefed properly.

“…that a general council as well as a Pope may err, and had no right to impose any article of faith not founded in the Scriptures.”

Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §37 (1888), public domain.public domain

In the gameThe thing he had not meant to say and could not unsay. Cornered about Hus, he went further than he had planned — and a general council joined the pope on the list of things that can be wrong.

“(3) Books against his popish opponents: in these he confessed to have been more violent than was proper, but even these he could not retract without giving aid and comfort to his enemies, who would triumph and make things worse.”

Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §54 (1888), public domain, summarising Luther’s speech of 18 April 1521.public domain

In the gameLuther’s answer at Worms, which few remember. He sorted his books first: plain gospel that friend and foe both accept, books against abuses, and books where he had been ruder than he should have been. He could not take back even those.

“I am sorry that the learned doctor only dips into the Scripture as the water-spider into the water—nay, that he seems to flee from it as the Devil from the Cross. I prefer, with all deference to the Fathers, the authority of the Scripture, which I herewith recommend to the arbiters of our cause.”

Luther at the Leipzig Disputation, July 1519, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §37 (1888), public domain.public domain

In the gameHis closing, and it is not really about Eck. It is about a whole method: quote the fathers on the fathers on the Scripture, and touch the Scripture itself as lightly as an insect standing on a pond.