The Smalcald Articles (1537)
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~14,300 words · 68 passages
Cite this work
- APAMartin Luther. (n.d.). The Smalcald Articles (1537). SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/martin-luther/the-smalcald-articles-1537
- MLAMartin Luther. "The Smalcald Articles (1537)." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/martin-luther/the-smalcald-articles-1537.
- ChicagoMartin Luther. The Smalcald Articles (1537). SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/martin-luther/the-smalcald-articles-1537.
What it is about
The Smalcald Articles (1537): what is negotiable and what is not.
Context and history
Luther wrote them while ill and believing he was dying, to put on record the points on which Lutherans could not yield to a council. They form part of the Lutheran confessional books and remain so.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
Since Pope Paul III convoked a Council last year, to assemble at Mantua about Whitsuntide, and afterwards transferred it from Mantua, so that it is not yet known where he will or can fix it, and we on our part either had to expect that we would be summoned also to the Council or [to fear that we would] be condemned unsummoned, I was directed to compile and collect the articles of our doctrine [in order that it might be plain] in case of deliberation as to what and how far we would be both willing and able to yield to the Papists, and in what points we intended to persevere and abide to the end. I have accordingly compiled these articles and presented them to our side. They have also been accepted and unanimously confessed by our side, and it has been resolved that, in case the Pope with his adherents should ever be so bold as seriously and in good faith, without lying and cheating, to hold a truly free [legitimate] Christian Council (as, indeed, he would be in duty bound to do), they be publicly delivered in order to set forth the Confession of our Faith.
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