Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope
A short Lutheran statement against the claim that the bishop of Rome rules the whole church by divine right, adopted at Smalcald in 1537 and included in the Book of Concord of 1580. It is cited here for the Lutheran reading of Matthew 16.
Read the text at bookofconcord.org ↗The section on the primacy, with numbered paragraphs (Book of Concord) ↗
The Lutheran princes and their theologians met at Smalcald in February 1537. The treatise was presented to the princes there and treats a subject that the Augsburg Confession had passed over. The preachers present subscribed it together with that confession, declaring that they approved “the article concerning the primacy of the Pope and his power, and the power and jurisdiction of bishops”. It became one of the confessional writings of the Lutheran churches.
The first part denies three claims: that the pope is by divine right above all bishops, that he holds both swords, and that it is necessary for salvation to believe this. Paragraphs 22–29 answer the appeal to Matthew 16. They argue that Peter speaks there for all the apostles, that the keys belong to the whole church, and that the rock is “the ministry of the confession which Peter made”. It is a polemical document written in the middle of the Reformation conflict, and it states one side of that argument.
Cited in
- c. AD 29 or 32, estimated date
- 18 November 1302, firm date