Martin Luther Quotes
The Romanists have affirmed and maintained that the temporal power has no jurisdiction over them, but, on the contrary, that the spiritual power is above the temporal.
Martin Luther, 1483-1546, German Theologian & Founder of Protestantism, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation Concerning the Reform of the Christian Estate, 1520
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This concept is not terribly different from the concept of the theocracy of the Islamic government of Iran in the 21st century. There is a civil government but it serves and is “under the direction of the spiritual power.”
This notice of Excommunication was promulgated to the Catholic clergy in Ireland in May of 1538. It required all Roman Catholic leaders to size the property of Protestants or Catholics who sympathized with them. Those who did were then regarded as traitors by the Protestant King. The anti-Protestant feeling culminated with the massacre of about 100 Protestants who were drowned in Bann a few years later.
5th Earl of Montrose. The public reaction to a new prayer book issued by the King and created by the King’s religious appointees. Although Protestant in nature, it was created without the early Scottish Protestant tradition of consultation with many levels of clergy and society. It was seen as authoritarian and much like the Catholic mass which was proscribed by Rome. The National Covenant was a document of protest. It was first drafted by Alexander Henderson and Johnston of Wariston, and signed by others, but Montrose was the first signer and the acknowledged leader of the Covenanters.
Smith was the first Roman Catholic to run for President. He was very popular but there was a substantial amount of anti-Catholicism in America at the time. He lost, probably by the margin of the anti-Catholic vote.
His response was to being asked whether he could do something with Russian Catholics to help Laval win favor with the Pope, to counter the increasing threat of Nazism. This quotation is often used as an example of Stalin’s disrespect for the Papacy. However, in this case, the Pope was extremely weak politically and some argue spiritually for he did not oppose Hitler and the Nazis very much. Defenders of the Papacy argue that Hitler had overwhelming force and little respect for the Pope, and ironically this was what Stain was referring to. Ironically, another Pope, John Paul, had a major part in bring down the Soviet Union and he had no divisions.
This was before the state had officially sanctioned and accepted the church. Most of the institutions were pagan and the kings had subjects of both religions with Christianity not yet dominant. Yet among Christians, the Church had government temporal power, even before the church was allied with the state.
The Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope were at odds. The Pope had issued an edict staking out the powers of the Pope. King Henry called a conclave of clerics and deposed Pope Leo VII. The Pope Excommunicated Henry and deposed him as king and emperor. Civil war ensued, and finally they reached a compromise and accommodation with each other." Saint Hildebrand
This detestable accusation completely ignores the fact that when the American Catholic Church had a raft of homosexual priests in the early 21st century, the Pope condemned this in the most uncertain terms. Child homosexual molestation is vehemently condemned by both Catholicism and Islam alike—also by straights and homosexual groups.
The struggle in the Catholic Church reached an amazing state. Just after a new pope, Martin V, had been elected the Council of Bishops at Constance came up with this notion which placed their views above those of the Pope under the theory that this particular council derived its power and authority directly from Christ while the pope was only God’s “vicar on earth.” The struggle was somewhat akin to the inevitable struggle for power between an executive branch and a legislative branch. The Council’s ascendancy didn’t last very long and was repudiated by successive popes.
The Roman Catholic Church in America had a very difficult problem with slavery. Catholics were themselves a minoirty, hated and distrusted by many Protestants. In most of the country, the distrusr was based on their large immigrant population, but in the South Catholic theology was hated and the Vatican and Pope were particular targets. The Catholic Clergy generally did not want to take sides in the most contentious issue in America since its inception. The Southern Catholic Clergy did not have that option as in the South, anyone who was not a supporter of slavery was an "enemy of the community and subject to all kinds of violence." Some Southern priests were willing to take the personal risk but did not want to put their followers at risk. In a strange consequence, Catholics--especially Irish Catholics--fought on both sides of the Civil War and often against each other. While it was not an exemplary moral behavior for the Church, there were difficult pressures on Catholic leaders. Further, most of the lowest and most difficult, undesirable jobs were filled by Catholics and most Catholic laymen so and end to slavery as the start of pitting the Catholics against the Blacks. So there was not a groundswell for abolition in most Catholic parishes even in the North.
This quotation illustrates how the power and mechanism of an established church operated to control ideas and maintain theological monopoly. In this case, no one could sell or rent any facility in the city to a cleric or church of any kind or persuasion without first having the approval of the Bishop who had theological control of that territory. Even Catholic scholars could not rent a room in the city unless their scholarship met with the Bishop’s approval. This was history with which the American Founding were very familiar, and wanted to avoid by adopting the 1st Amendment.
Martin Luther, O.S.A. was a German professor of theology, priest, author, composer, Augustinian monk, and a seminal figure in the Reformation. Luther was ordained to the priesthood in 1507. He came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church; in particular, he disputed the view on indulgences. Luther proposed an academic discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences in his Ninety-five Theses of 1517. His refusal to renounce all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted in his excommunication by the pope and condemnation as an outlaw by the Holy Roman Emperor.
