The Smalcald Articles

In the heat of controversy, Martin Luther presents the Smalcald Articles as a blunt confession of what Christians must never surrender, even if a council proves neither free nor fair. He speaks with urgency and defiance, condemning false teachers, hostile opponents, and even misleading allies while praying that Christ himself will intervene in a Church and society marked by delay, corruption, and disorder. At the center of the work stands the heart of Lutheran belief: the Trinity, the incarnation, Christ's death and resurrection, and salvation by faith alone. Luther rejects the Mass as a human invention that replaces trust in Christ with priestly performance, and he extends his attack to purgatory, memorial rites for the dead, pilgrimages, relics, indulgences, and the whole machinery of religious trade. He likewise denounces saint veneration, papal supremacy, and the pope's claim to stand above Scripture, insisting that the Church can exist only under Christ, with bishops as brethren rather than subjects of a false head. The final theological sections define original sin, expose the limits of free will, and contrast the crushing Law with the saving Gospel, rejecting papal repentance as a burden of contrition, confession, and satisfaction that obscures true mercy. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.