Duo Cherubim adversis vultibus.

: The Making and Text-Hermeneutical Substance of Martin Luther's Principle Scriptura sui ipsius interpres

Abstract

　Sola Scriptura, one of the “principles” of Protestantism, was first asserted clearly by Martin Luther in his Assertio omnium articulorum M. Lutheri per Bullam Leonis X. nouissimam damnatorum (1520), the reassertion of all the 41 articles collected from his writings since 1517 and condemned by the papal bull Exsurge Domine. The bull demanded that he revoke them within a set term, and menaced with excommunication, arrest and penal transport to Rome, along with his followers and protectors, in case of refusal. It was a plain act of power evoking the fire and faggot of the Bohemian reformer Jan Hus only a century earlier. As Bulla contra errores Lutheri et sequacium, however, it was at the same time an act of theological authority; from the very outset of the controversy Luther's opponents focused likewise on the issue of obedience allegedly due to the papal authority.
　In this context the Reformer states at the beginning: he is not ready to be compelled by the authority of a “Father however holy” unless he is approved by Scripture. — The principle that the ultimate authority for theological questions is the Holy Scripture alone, was originally asserted against the actual threatening by the papal authority and power. (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)