«O tempo de falar chegou!» Significado e importância teológico-política do Apelo à Nobreza Cristã da Nação Alemã (12 de agosto de 1520)

Abstract

The text Appeal to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, written in August 1520, is one of Martin Luther’s most significant reforming writings (alongside On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, from October 1520, and On the Freedom of a Christian, from November 1520, among others). This pamphlet-like text, despite addressing the pressing issues of its time, also represents a culmination in the debates about the relationship between temporal and spiritual powers (De potestate), which had fueled theological-political discourse during the Late Middle Ages. This includes, notably, discussions regarding the primacy of the council over the Pope (conciliarism), an ancient recognition that, at least since John of Paris (1273-1306) to John of Gerson (1362-1429), opposed the papal claim to the fullness of power (plenitudo potestatis papalis), not only in temporal matters but also in the internal organization and administration of the Church. The papalist interpretation transgressed an idea from Pope Gelasius in the late 5th century about the separation of the two powers or two swords: temporal and spiritual. This concept was continuously betrayed over the centuries by so-called political Augustinianism, which significantly sought support in book XIX of The City of God by Saint Augustine. However, Luther, also a (partial) reader of Saint Augustine and Saint Paul, sought to think of the Church not from the separation, opposition, or subordination of powers, but from grace and charisms (among which is the temporal dominium of a dominus in a kingdom). These are indispensable for the edification of the one Body of Christ, which is both temporal and eternal. Through this lens, all ministries, including the most humble ones, gain great spiritual value (or secularize, from another perspective). Regardless, in the wake of the indulgence controversy, Luther’s appeal urging German princes to assert their autonomy from Rome’s secular power eventually paved the way (at the cost of much dreaming and much bloodshed, it must be said) for the affirmation of the nation-states within the Holy Roman Empire. Simultaneously, through the primacy of the «common priesthood of believers» over the magisterial power of the “ordained priesthood” (potestas ordinis), this pamphlet carries a potentially very virulent, explosive, and even apocalyptic interpretation and preaching of the Scriptures (we are at the end of times, the Antichrist is at the door, etc.). Politically, this erupted soon after (1524-1525) in the fields of Germany. From a broader hermeneutical perspective, it recovers some processes of subjectivation and appropriation of «speaking places» as well as nominalist conceptions that had been gaining relevance in the 14th and 15th centuries. These processes would deepen both in rationalist modernity (from Descartes’ cogito to Kant’s Ich denken) and in fideist modernity (Jansenism, Pascal, etc.). Nevertheless, the urgent call in 1520 is to reform the Church, for «the time for silence has ended, and the time to speak has come!» («Die Zeit zu reden ist kommen»). And it is this decision of Luther to speak out that is most important to us.