Georg Major on Church Fathers and Councils

Abstract

In 1550 Georg Major, a student of Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon and subsequently their colleague on the Wittenberg theological faculty, published a work in which he discussed whether the church fathers and councils are capable of erring, De origine et autoritate verbi Dei [On the Origin and Authority of God's Word]. In fact, when Major wrote this analysis, that particular issue had long since become a moot point among adherents of the Wittenberg Reformation. Against the views of the medieval Western church and in line with other reformers, Luther had maintained the fallibility of the ancient fathers and called into question the authority that had been accorded them. In general, the reformers expressed grave doubts regarding the authority of the "tradition," which they regarded as fundamentally resting on human institution, and they viewed Holy Scripture as the only valid norm for faith and doctrine. Nevertheless, they continued to make use of traditional medieval elements, including appropriate statements of the church fathers and decisions of church councils. This essay will shed light on how the Evangelicals developed their understanding of tradition by posing the following questions: 1) What are the preliminary steps and the background of Major's composition of an Evangelical understanding of tradition? 2) What level of authority did Georg Major ascribe to the church fathers and what role did they play in the life of the church? 3) In the course of his treatise, in which contexts does Major turn to the church fathers in his argumentation?