The Reformers Weren’t Innovators
By Matthew Barrett, TGC.
Martin Luther was a medieval man with a tongue as sharp as a knight’s sword. Toward the end of his life, he wielded its blade to cut down the accusation he may have hated most of all: the Reformation was a deviant sect and innovative heresy, a clean break with the catholicity (or universality) of the church.
The sting of that accusation, leveled by Duke Henry of Braunschweig, hurt because the reformer had spent his best years proving otherwise.
Luther called the duke Hanswurst, or “Johnny Sausage,” the German name for a silly carnival clown who wore a fat German sausage through his belt. In 1541, Luther wrote against Henry’s accusation, saying it was as ridiculous as the clown. But Luther wrote with all the seriousness of a man fighting for his life against the Devil. Henry—and Rome itself—claimed the reformers “have fallen away from the holy church and set up a new church.” He said of Rome, “We are the true church, for [we] have come from the ancient church and have remained in it.” In a moment of irony, Luther turned the charge around: “But you have fallen away from us and have become a new church opposed to us.”
Mark of Catholicity: The Creeds
To manifest his catholicity (conformity with the universal church), Luther proposed one proof after another, each demonstrating why the Reformation aligned with the Nicene Creed: “We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” Luther quoted the Nicene Creed (and named the Apostles’ Creed) to locate the Reformation within the orthodoxy of its creedal tradition. The sola scriptura principle in no way stalled Luther’s command. He ordered the churches of the Reformation to believe, sing, and confess the creeds.
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